Eclipsed Ancestry
by GreenCrystal19
Summary: Percy has an evil grandfather. Correction: ANOTHER evil grandfather. Some wizards come along and whisk him off to Hogwarts, "Just for a year or so." Now, Percy and some demigod friends have to deal with the Golden Trio, a walking pink toad for a teacher, (we all know who that is!) and the greatest Dark wizard of all time! Set during OotP after BoO. No Trials of Apollo.
1. Chapter 1

**Eclipsed Ancestry**

**By GreenCrystal19**

**Disclaimer: **Only saying this once. I do not own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter. These belong to Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling. If you didn't know that, you are a true Seaweed Brain. (Just kidding!) Also: Cover art by Viktoria Ridzel (or Viria/viria13/vika) and cover design/setup by me, using Apple's photo app and Pages app (funny how Pages can flip photos horizontally, but Photos can't.)

**Author's Notes: **So I know this is weird. Percy related to Voldemort. But it IS an interesting concept, and I've read some half-finished versions that were really good. So bear with me, okay? **Takes place in ****_Order of the Pheonix_****, and after the giant war in ****_Blood of Olympus_****. Percy is 16 and a half but is in 5th year, as are the other demigods. No events from Trials of Apollo except Leo getting back with Calypso.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Harry's PoV**

Harry was being squeezed through a tube. Or least, that's what it felt like. Apparating. He'd always imagined it as a whoosh and a bang, like flying, but it was nothing like that.

Oh, where was Harry going? He didn't know. What he _did _know was that he would be picking up Voldemort's grandson. Dumbledore had told Harry about the situation before they'd left; the first time that the older wizard had offered Harry any information for months. Harry was still furious at him for that, and for being stuck with the Dursleys for almost the whole summer.

Now, Harry, Dumbledore, and Lupin stood at the top of the hill, next to a large pine tree with-Harry did a double take-a golden rug and a dragon. Harry wondered what that was about, but having had experience with dragons, he stood well away from the glittering copper reptile. Despite having stopped apparating, Harry still felt like his insides were being squeezed through a tube. He was angry and nervous and irritated all at the same time. What if Voldemort's grandson killed him? What if that was Harry's destiny? Harry shook his head and looked in front of him again.

The wizards looked down at a blue and white farmhouse, surrounded by strawberry fields and Greek buildings, the entire valley full of kids and weird human-goat hybrids wearing orange t-shirts. Interesting place for Voldemort's grandson to hang out, Harry thought.

The wizards made their way down to the farmhouse. No one seemed to notice them, courtesy of Dumbledore's magic. He'd decided that the less attention they got, the safer they were. As the arrived at the farmhouse, a guy on a white horse-wait, a _centaur_-greeted them. He wore a T-shirt that read "Party Ponies" in big text, and something else that Harry didn't bother to read. The centaur had brown hair and a brown beard. "I am Chiron," he said. "I assume you are here for Percy?"

"Yes, we are," Dumbledore said. With a twinkle in his keen blue eyes, he asked, "May we sit down, Chiron?"

Chiron nodded. "Of course. Percy is coming now." The wizards followed Chiron along the porch until they came to a cluster of lawn chairs around a table. The wizards sat down, and Harry surveyd his surroundings. It looked like a happy sort of place, like any summer camp. It certainly didn't look like a summer camp filled with Dark magic. But looks can be decieving, Harry thought.

Dumbledore had told them that Percy did not practice magic as they knew it-with a wand and spells. However, Percy was still supposed to be very powerful, so they were planning on taking him to Hogwarts before Voldemort found him and made him join his army. Harry knew that he may stay for a year or more, so he'd would have to be careful around him.

As the tension among the group reached it's peak, a teenager came around the corner. He looked to be about sixteen or seventeen, and he had an easy-going smile, black hair, and sea-green eyes. Voldemort's grandson walked up to the group and plopped down in one of the chairs, looking at them expectantly. "So, what's this all about?" he asked.

* * *

**Percy's PoV**

I was having a great day. Annabeth was at Olympus, as usual, but I was still having a great time. Travis and Conner Stoll were planning a prank with me. It was great. But then Leo ran up to us. "Percy! Chiron needs you in the Big House! He said that it was urgent."

"This isn't another prank, is it?" I asked him. I had a bad feeling about this. Could the Titans or Giants be returning? Or was this something new...something _worse?_

"No; it's not a prank! Chiron ACTUALLY wants you at the Big House." Leo's nose caught fire, before extinguishing. So it must have been urgent; that only happens when Leo's nervous or excited. So only 80% of the time for that last one. Okay, let me explain. Leo is a son of Hephaestus. He has fire powers, and is one of the most annoying friends I have. Of course, he's still great.

By this time, we'd arrived at the Big House. Leo directed me around the corner of the wrap-around porch before heading off to do some Leo things in Leo World. I walked around the corner, bracing myself for anything-monsters, Mr. D, a god, my mom...What I saw were some very jumpy looking dudes. One wore some crazy purple and silver robes, and had long, silver hair and a long, silver beard. He seemed calmer than everyone else. The other one was a shabby looking guy. He had brown hair with some gray streaks.

But the guy that really caught my attention was the one that looked like me, although he looked less like a demigod and less...well, watery. Okay, that sounded wrong-I mean less like a son of the sea god. He had messy black hair and green eyes...like me. But there were some differences. This guy was a bit shorter and scrawnier than me, and his eyes were more emerald than sea green, like yours truly. He also had black glasses with perfectly round lenses, and there was also the fact that he was glaring at me like I'd set his bed on fire. (Like Leo did that one time...but I won't get into that.)

I plunked myself down on one of the lawn chairs and asked, "So, what's all this about?"

The old guy answered my question. "This is about you, Perseus."

I stiffened. "Just Percy," I said. My real name was usually only used by hungry monsters or an angry Annabeth. I thought an angry Annabeth was scarier.

The old guy nodded. "Percy, then. My name is Professor Dumbledore-" I wondered why he had such a weird name- "-and I am a wizard, as are Remis Lupin and Harry Potter."

The boy with the glasses stiffened, and I assumed he was Harry. I wasn't too surprised at the wizard thing-when you've seen what I've seen, you don't really get surprised at little things, like wizards. Even so, I was wary-this didn't sound good. "What are you here for?" I asked. I wanted to get to the point.

"How to say this..." the Dumbledore person mused. "There is a certain Dark wizard rising in our world. He and his followers, the Death Eaters. They are a problem, because-" At that moment, a satyr-Coach Hedge, to be specific-trotted around the corner, Leo following. "Coach, just because Percy is meeting some wizard-people doesn't mean he needs you to protect-" Leo was saying, between giggles.

Coach Hedge interupted, shouting, "WHAT ARE YOU CUPCAKES DOING HERE?! YOU CUPCAKES HAD BETTER-" I decided to take matters into my own hands, as Leo had collapsed against the wall of the Big House in silent laughter. Gods, I hate my life.

"Coach," I began. Louder, I said, "COACH, could you please maybe stay out of this?"

The saytr continued on shouting things about cupcakes and push-ups. By the gods, this was embarassing, I thought, catching a glimse of the wizards' faces. Chiron was trying to get Coach to leave, unsuccessfully, I might add. I looked at Leo, like, _Why did you do this to me?_ but he just continued laughing. I stood up and walked over to Coach Hedge. "Um, coud you maybe leave? Like, _now?_" Leo finally helped me, and we persuaded the saytr to leave us alone.

I sat back down in the lawnchair with an exasperated sigh, and Leo leaned against the railing, watching."Sorry. Coach Hedge is a little..." I looked at Leo for help.

"Fun," he supplied. "Eccentric. Unconventional! Wild!"

"Yeah," I said awkwardly. "What Leo said."

Dumbledore winked at me and said, "I can see that. As I was saying, the Death Eaters and the Dark wizard, Voldemort-"

Leo snorted. "Who would want to _eat Thanatos_? And Voldemort? That rhymes with Mouldy Shorts!" When Leo finished laughing, he said with grin, "Sorry. Keep talking; it's funny."

I face-palmed. Harry unexpectedly leapt to his feet, whipping out a...stick. "_Wow_. A _stick_," I said sarcastically.

Harry glared at me, and said, "Voldemort killed my parents, and hundreds of other innocent people."

Leo was silent. "I'm sorry," he finally said. I knew that his mom had dyed in a fire, and that Leo used to blame himself for what Gaea did. I understood too-demigods had a lot of problems with parents. Fortunately, my mom was awesome.

Dumbledore delivered the grand finale. "You are Voldemort's grandson."

"Voldemort's _evil _grandson," Harry muttered. Lupin gave him a look, but I'd heard what I needed to hear. _That _explained the angry looks Harry had been giving me.

Just then, the shadows by the corner of the porch suddenly darkened, and out walked Nico di Angelo. My life just got better and better, as it went on, didn't it?

Harry and Lupin leapt to their feet, twigs out and ready to...well, I don't know what the twigs did. Dumbledore remained seated and said, "Harry, Lupin, sit down. He means us no harm."

Nico looked suspicious. "Chiron? Percy? Leo? Explain, please?"

Chiron, Dumbledore, Leo, and I filled him in. Unlike us unmature demigods, Nico didn't crack a smile. When we mentioned Voldemort, he clenched his fists and muttered something like, "Arrogant mortal. How _dare _he give himself that cursed name-" but cut himself off. When we finished, he said, "I see. _That's _what my father meant."

I gave Nico a curious look, but he shot me a return look that clearly meant, _We'll talk later. _I gave a small nod, and turned my attention back to the wizards. "So...what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

Lupin gave me a grave look. "You are supposed to go to Hogwarts School...with Harry," he said.

Oh, schist!

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Most Demigod POVS will be from from 1st Person for now, and wizards' will be from 3rd person limited. So the same as their books.

Edit: I will be switching from 1st and 3rd person as I see fit (read: as I feel like it)


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **Yes, I know J.K. Rowling has specified that the "t" in Voldemort is silent. But Mouldy Shorts sounds better than Moldy Shore, so Mouldy Shorts it is. Also, if you have any thoughts/comments, feel free to review.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Harry's POV**

Percy gaped at us. "_What? _I can't go to Hogwarts! I need to stay at camp! What about my friends? What about Annabeth? If I leave, she is going to _kill _me!"

Dumbledore smiled. "You can visit camp if you want. And you may bring two of your friends with you."

"Me," Leo said instantly. "You need your Flaming Valdez, Supreme Commander of the Argo II-" Before Leo could keep on rambling, Percy interrupted him. Harry didn't really like Leo; he was annoying. And suspicious.

"Great. You can come. Anyone else?" Percy said.

"Me." Nico stepped out of the shadows. Dead silence. Harry thought Nico was creepy-he was surrounded by the same aura of death and despair that Voldemort was. "I need to go," Nico continued.

"Umm, okay," Percy said. "What about Annabeth? She's gonna _kill _me if I head off to Hogwarts without her."

"You said that already," Leo said. "Also, I doubt that she'll _kill _you."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right," he said. "She'll just assign me kitchen patrol for a _month _when I get back to camp."

_Hm, _Harry thought. _Maybe Percy isn't completely evil after all._ He dismissed the thought. Percy could be acting, saying normal (ish) things while he thought of a plan to get Harry killed. And even if he wasn't, Harry would need to be careful. The three teenagers were certainly weird-the goat dude and the rest of the camp was proof of that-but they didn't seem too sinister, except for maybe Nico. Not that he'd done anything-_yet_, Harry reminded himself.

"We shoud get prepared," Nico said. "Also, how are we going to _get _there?"

"Aww, Neeks," Leo said. "You're never any fun!"

"Don't call me Neeks! I _hate_ that nickname," Nico said.

"Taco di Angelo*?" Percy asked.

"No."

"Fine," Percy said.

Lupin coughed. "Nico is right," he said. "You should get prepared."

An hour later, the three newcomers were ready to go. Percy and Nico had duffel bags-sea green for Percy, black for Nico. Leo had a big metal suitcase filled with some clothes and metal scraps.

Harry wondered what the metal part was about, and why the suitcase looked so weird. Probably part of Percy's evil plan, he thought, before he could stop himself.

Dumbledore explained about apparition, and how it was done. Nico asked, "Can we shadow-travel?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No. Only I know the right location. But first, Percy must do something important..."

Nico sighed. Harry wondered what his problem was. While the trio were packing, Dumbledore and Chiron had said that they were elementalists-Percy worked with water, Leo with fire, and Nico with shadows. Harry felt like they were leaving out something important, but decided to dismiss it. It was probably nothing.

* * *

Apparently, the important thing was saying goodbye to his family. This seemed so odd, so out of place, that Harry stopped a moment to puzzle over it. Soon, they arrived at Percy's year-round home-an apartment building in Manhattan. Dumbledore knocked on the door, three times, brisk and efficiently. A women with long brown hair with some gray streaks opened the door. Her eyes seemed to change from blue to green to gray, sparkling in the sunlight streaming from the windows.

"Hello," she said warmly. "I'm Sally Jackson, but I go by Mrs. Jackson now. I assume Percy has come to say goodbye, going on some quest again?" She took it so _calmly. _THIS was Percy's mother, and Voldemort's daughter? Harry had half expected her to be some lady with black clothes and scary makeup. She just seemed so _nice _and so _different _from the picture Harry had had in his head-they all did.

The group walked into the apartment, and Mrs. Jackson invited them to sit on the couch. They sat. Harry noticed a bowl of blue candy on the coffee table-jellybeans, licorice, M&Ms, Skittles. Percy promptly began nibbling on a blue licorice stick, as he began explaining to Mrs. Jackson.

"So Mom. I'm the grandson of some Mouldy-Shorts guy. Scratch that-Voldemort." _Chomp. _Percy took of half the licorice stick. "I'm going to a school called Hogwarts to learn magic." His sea-green eyes seeming to say, _I know, right? This must be the stupidest quest I've ever gone on. _

Mrs. Jackson's lips tightened. "Percy, I know you've been through a lot, but this Wizarding World is facing a big problem. Voldemort is much more dangerous then anything you've faced-even the Titans, Giants, and Gaea. He can kill you simple by flicking his wand."

"Sounds like schist over there," Leo said.

Harry gave him a dirty look. "My life is not _schist,_ despite what you think," he snapped.

"Well, we should be going," Dumbledore interrupted

Mrs. Jackson looked worried. "Be careful, Percy," she said, as the group got up to leave. She gave Percy a hug. "IM me."

"I will, Mom," Percy said, smiling. "I haven't died yet, have I?"

Mrs. Jackson smiled, but it seemed forced. Harry, his friends, and these strange new "elemental wizards" left for Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Harry had no idea what would happen next.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **The name Taco di Angelo belongs to GreenWithAwesome, not me. Again, please review. I didn't make Sally Jackson take on the name Mrs. Blofis, because then Percy would be Percy Blofis, and it would be weird, LOL. Even "Sally Blofis" sounds weird, IDK.

P.S. Mr. Blofis was on an errand. They may meet later. Probably not, though.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Nico's PoV**

Apparition was awful. It was nothing like shadow-travel. Shadow-travel was like rushing through the dark at 100 miles per hour. Apparition was being sqeezed through a tube. In a few moments, I found myself staring at two amazing houses. That is to say, two very old, very gloomy houses. Alright, just joking. Children of Hades are NOT vampires. I needed to remind Annabeth of that next time she designed one of the cabins.

Anyways, there was a number 11 and a number 13, but no number 12.

Then Dumbledore was there. "Number 12, Grimmauld Place," he whispered. As soon as I thought the words, a house appeared, growing straight out from numbers 11 and 13. Great. More magic. More trouble.

I followed Percy and Leo, who were following the wizards. Duh. As I stepped across the threshhold of "Number 12, Grimmauld Place," I thought, _Whoa, t__his is almost worse than the Hades cabin. _It had dark walls, a dark carpet, and a gloomy atmosphere. It even had a dark ceiling complete with unlit silver snake chandeliers covered in cobwebs-now all the house needed were coffin beds.

The hallway was narrow, and led out to several different rooms: the dining room on one side, and a set of steps on the other. There was also a set of stairs going up, and a set of old curtains on the hallway wall. This house was full of sets. We descended the staircase into a cold, gloomy kitchen. The walls, floor, and ceiling were gray stone, and pots and pans hung from the ceiling. The room felt like the Hades cabin when I first moved in-empty, cold, and like cursed-no one had lived in it for a hundred years.

A long wooden table ran down the center of the kitchen, worn with age. Opposite the door was a large, ornate fireplace, which was (to my slight relief) lit with a crackling fire. There was a closed door leading off from the kitchen, but we didn't have time to investigate, as a plump, cheerful looking women bustled over to us.

"Hello, dears. You must be Percy!" she said to Percy. Despite her smiling face, we could all tell that she knew about Percy's grandfather, and was quite suspicious of him. Yay. "I'm Mrs. Weasley."

As we sat down at the ancient table, Mrs. Weasley made dinner. Then she went off to get "the others." As it turned out, "the others" were Harry's buddies, and they were just as wonderfully suspisious of us as Harry was. Oh, gods. Hades forbid, I'm starting to sound like Leo. As Harry's friends walked in, my gaze flicked over them, accessing their threat level. There were quite a few redheads-a tall, gangly boy with blue eyes, a pair of redheaded boys who were obviously twins, and a fierce looking girl with-gasp-red hair. Another girl had bushy _brown _hair-finally, something a bit more subdued!

The gangly boy glared at us. "Which one of you is You-Know-Who's grandson?" he asked.

"Ron!" Mrs. Weasley chided. "Don't be so rude _or else!_" Mrs. Weasley gave Ron a glare worthy of the Ghost King-yours truly.

Percy cleared his throat. "I may be Voldemort's grandson, but I'm not evil. But I do tend to be called trouble."

"Not like he _ever _does anything to deserve it," Leo said helpfully.

Percy nodded. "Of course not!"

"Of _coourrse _not," I add, raising my eyebrows.

Ron glared at us and sat next to Harry, who was, of course, next to Percy. Or used to be. Now Ron was between Percy and Harry. I felt bad for the guy. Sitting next to Ron Weasley was almost worse than Tartarus. _Nothing is __worse than Tartarus_, I thought. I shook off the memories. Tartarus still gave me nightmares-as did Bianca's death and some stuff I'd rather not talk (or think) about.

Leo said, "You-Know-Who? Are you referring to Mouldy Shorts and his Thanatos Eaters?"

Percy and Leo burst out laughing, and even I cracked a smile. (Yes, I can smile. Sons of Hades have a sense of humour, too-why is everyone so surprised?)

Harry and Ron just looked at us. Finally, Ron said, "Hermione? Know what they're talking about?" The bushy-haired girl shook her head.

"But I may-" Twin #1 said.

"know just what-" Twin #2 said.

"-they mean-"

"-by all those-"

"-complicated terms."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Nope. If Hermione doesn't know, no _way _do you. And don't talk like that! It's comfusing!"

By this time, Mrs. Weasley had gotton all the food on the table. The options were potato soup, a lettuce, kiwi, and onion salad, and some freshly buttered rolls. I took some salad and a roll.

Leo gasped as I took a bite of roll. "Nico! You actually eat REAL FOOD?!"

I gave Leo my best death glare. "Knock it off."

Leo knocked it off-or at least, he stopped bothering _me_. Now, his target was Percy. "So Percy, what should we do tomorrow? Set stuff on fire? Maybe make the toilets explode again?"

I face-palmed. Leo laughed. Percy smiled. Harry and Ron looked confused.

"_Anyways,_" I said forcefully, changing the subject, "where will we sleep?"

"In Percy's room," Mrs. Weasley said tersely. We looked at Percy.

"You have a _room?_" Leo asked him. "Unfair!"

"Yeah," I agreed. "What's up with the special room?"

"No, not _that _Percy," Mrs. Weasley explained. "Percy Weasley. He-he..." Mrs. Weasley broke down in tears.

I exchanged awkward glanced with Percy J. and Leo.

Mr. Weasey jumped in. "Our Percy left," he said, careful to keep his face expressionless and wooden. "He..._disagreed _about issues related with You-Know-Who." Mr. Weasley glared at Percy J. like this was all his fault.

The three of us were silent the rest of dinner.

* * *

That night, I had a nightmare. I bet you were wondering where I was yesterday, before I shadow-traveled to the Big House. Well, now you can find out-for free! I can tell you, nightmare style! I bet we'd all love that.

I was in my father's throne room. Hades sat on his thrown, looking down at me. Despite his (mostly) blank expression, I knew that since the battle with the Titans, he'd been warming up to me.

Hades began telling me about my new mission. Oh, right! Mission. Let me explain: Because I am a demigod, I serve as my father's errand boy-or because Hades trusts me. Right. Mystery solved. Okay, I'll stop with the stupid Leo-talk.

"There is a mortal, one of the descendents of those blessed by Hecate," Hades began. "He has cheated death for far too long-even Thanatos cannot catch him. Worse, he has killed countless mortals, and caused me much annoyance. His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, but now he goes by a foolish name: Voldemort. Find him, and bring him to me."

I knew that when Hades said "annoyance" he meant paperwork. You don't want to be around Hades when he's been dealing with paperwork. "Yes, Father," I said.

Hades waved his hand dismissively-even if gods liked you, they still see you as a mortal-small and insignificant. "Now go, my son," he said. As I turned to go, he added, "I'm trusting you with an enormous task. Do not fail me, Nico di Angelo."

The dream changed. Bianca di Angelo stood before me. "It was your fault that I died, Nico. You annoyed me so much that I _had _to join the Hunt."

I woke up, thank the gods. I _hated _that dream. It kept coming back to haunt me. One of those Arai in Tartarus had cursed me with nightmares of all my mistakes, apparently. Sons of Hades don't get enough as it is, do they? A wave of anger rolled through me, at Bianca, but mostly at myself. _Stop that, _I thought.

I knew that holding grudges was my fatal flaw. Bianca herself had told me that, as a spirit. I checked Leo's watch. It was around midnight. Stretching, I changed out of my black PJs with skeletons and some text that read "Spooky Scary Skeletons" (don't ask) into some broken-in black jeans, a black t-shirt with silver flames, and my black aviator's jacket. As you can see, I prefer the color black. I walked out the door and headed downstairs.

I headed down to the kitchen and turned on the sink. I dug around in my pockets until I found a golden drachma. I tossed it into the mist spraying out of a small leak in the faucet. "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering," I whispered. Typical Iris Message drama. "Show me Will Solace at Camp Half-Blood."

Will was in the woods, looking for something to use for "archery practice." Typical Will-he always got bored with archery targets and moved on to something else, like monsters. This is what us demigods call perfectly normal. "Will!" I said.

Will turned around. "Nico! I heard about the quest. How's it going?" His eyes narrowed. "You haven't been shadow-traveling around Britain, have you? Remember: doctor's orders!"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I haven't. The quest is fine. It's midnight here," I replied.

"Oh no! Did you stay up just to IM me?"

I shook my head. "I woke up," I replied.

"Nightmare?"

"Yup. Typical it's-your-fault-I-died-type." Will was the only one I told about this kind of stuff. Being a son of Apollo, he usual had something useful or cheerful to say about it. Sometimes annoying. Cheerful and annoying wasn't really my style, but for some reason, it always helped me stop worrying when it was Will doing the cheerful (or annoying) talk. Funny how a son of Hades and a son of Apollo get along so well. A little _too _well for me to admit to, actually.

"It's not your fault, you know," Will said, casually shooting a random monster in the distance.

I sighed. "I know."

Will checked his watch. "It's almost campfire time," he said. "IM me later?"

I nodded, before I waved my hand through the mist, cutting the connection. I had some stuff to do as well-namely, explore the house and look for a newspaper or something about Voldemort. _I won't fail on my mission. _

* * *

**Author's Note: **Sorry. I can't write romance that well. I know how it SHOULD be but when I have to write it, I can't. Also, if you're worried, there won't be too romance. I try to keep it not weird and not too lovey-dovey for any romance scenes, boy-boy or otherwise. Sorry if Nico or Will or anyone was OOC. I looked them up on the Riordan Wiki, so if they are OOC...poor me. LOL. There were like, 10 paragraphs on Nico's personality, and 2 sentences on Will's. -_-

Also, I am changing the name to something cooler-Eclipsed Ancestry. I'll update soon, hopefully!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: **Hey ya'll. This is Leo. JK, it's just the author. I hope you like the new title! I took the original title and used a thesaurus to make this one. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Leo's PoV**

I woke up earlier than the others, around 6:00. Nico was gone, because he's Nico di Angelo. Man, he was _creepy _sometimes. I sat up in my bed/sleeping bag thingie and crawled over to my suitcase. Opening it, I got out some metal and tools and began tinkering with it. By the time I was finished, pale, watery sunlight was creeping through the windows. I had made a flying skeletal bird. Nico would love that.

As though my thoughts had summoned him, Nico walked in. I adopted my I'm-so-happy-to-see-you face, complete with crazy grin. "Aye! What's up in da hoouusse?"

Nico looked at me skeptically at me before flopping down in his dark corner and opening a newspaper. Wait, a _newspaper? _"What's up with the newspaper?"

"I'll tell you once Percy's awake," Nico replied. "Leave me alone until then. I need to focus." Nico finished his statement with a death glare directed at me.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Weasley's voice rang through the house. "Breakfast! Be down here in thirty minutes!"

"Let's get this Kelp Head up!" I exclaimed, giving Nico my trademark grin.

Nico sighed and got up to help me. I nudged Percy with my foot. "Percy! Wake up!"

Percy mumbled and turned over.*******

"PERSEUS JACKSON! LEO'S GONNA GET YOU!" I shouted.

Percy mumbled and turned over.

"Huh. That one always works." I grabbed a certain magical scroll and stuck it on the nightstand. The moment it touched the wood, a little holographic Coach Hedge popped up. "GET UP YOU CUPCAKES!" Hedge bellowed. "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON AND GIVE ME TEN!"

Percy mumbled, "I don't wanna get up. I'm tired," and rolled over.

I rolled the scroll up and put mini-Hedge away. "PERCY! ANNABETH WILL MURDER YOU IF YOU DON'T GET UP RIGHT NOW!" I shouted, shaking him.

Percy snorted in his sleep and mumbled, "No she wouldn't, Leo. Leave me alone."

"Let _me _try," Nico said quietly from his shadowy corner. Uh-oh. Percy was in trouble now...

"Percy," Nico said softly. "Blue waffles. Blue pancakes. Blue jellybeans. All for breakfast. But...they are in limited supply, and if you don't get up, I will eat em' up..."

Percy shot up with a start. "_NO! _ONLY I AM WORTHY OF THE BLUE FOOD!"

"Works every time, Repair Boy," Nico told me.

I laughed. Percy rubbed his eyes and asked, "Leo, how much caffeine have you had today, Leo?"

"None! None at all!" I said proudly.

Nico snorted. "Really? I'm _sure_ about that." He rubbed his eyes. "Urgh. I hate mornings. Anyways, I'm going downstairs. You guys get ready." He walked out and closed the door behind him. I could hear him muttering about how he'd wreak revenge on me later all the way downstairs.

"Huh. Usually I like mornings, but today, I agree with Nico." Percy shook his head, smiling, before heading out to a spare bedroom to change. I grabbed an orange t-shirt with the letters CHB and some crumpled khaki shorts and tossed them on. Then, I headed downstairs.

Percy and Nico were already there, Percy sporting a blue wave t-shirt and some blue jeans. "Hey," he said when he saw me.

"Sup," I replied, giving everyone present my best grin. "Leo in the hoouussee!"

Nico smirked and said, "Yup. We all need Flaming Valdez to repair our stuff."

I grinned and slid between Percy and Hermione at the table, and began enjoying all the nom-noms of bacon, eggs, and toast. Percy was stuffing his face, and Nico was nibbling on some plain toast and a pomegranate. Where he got that, I don't know, and frankly, I don't want to know. Eating pomegranates seemed to be Nico's idea of a joke.

After breakfast, Nico pulled us aside, into the pantry off the kitchen. We crowded into the small, dark space, as Nico said, "I have something to tell you...about my mission."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **

DUN DUN DUN...*cheesey book trailer voice* What will happen next? What is Nico's mission? HOW WILL THE DEMIGOD SQUAD REACT TO IT?

*******Percy waking up scene inspired by a scene in Of Magic and Mythology by anajadenx. It's great; read it here: s/10838364/1/Of-Magic-and-Mythology

I am also PRETTY sure that the Coach Hedge on Buford the Wonder Table is actually a magic scroll...I looked it up...

Edit: I got rid of Leo hugging Nico/Nico scaring him to death-it was really OOC. I don't even KNOW what it was thinking-

But anyways. Enjoy!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:** Sorry I didn't update for a few days. Had stuff to do. I will update every other day or every three days during the summer until my 1 week trip up north. Once summer ends, expect an update AT LEAST every week. Good? Good.

Edit: Yeah, I won't be able to update as much as I hoped after the summer-expect an update every 1-4 weeks, hopefully.

**To LunaFox45 (Guest): **I don't know how to reply to reviews, but anyways: Without that proof, there wouldn't be as much tension. And I may make them have a duel of sorts (or at least Demigods V.S. Draco, Umbridge, and Co.) it would be hilarious...lol.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Percy's PoV**

"Mission? The one you mentioned on the porch?" I asked him.

"The one you _were going __to tell_ us about when Percy woke up?" Leo added.

"Yup," Nico said. "That one."

"Well, what happened?" I asked, impatient.

"Hades told me about this _Voldemort_ character," Nico said, the name _Voldemort _coming out as an angry hiss. "His very name is an outrage to the gods. Specifically Hades."

"How come?" I asked.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Is 'Mouldy Shorts' a bad word or something?"

Nico looked at us like we were stupid. "It means 'Flight of Death' in French," he explained. "He's literally claiming that he can overcome death."

"Oof," I said. Nico gave me an annoyed look.

"Hades told me that this _mortal _has cheated death for a while now. Apparently I'm supposed to kill him and bring his soul to Hades," Nico continued.

"Sounds fun," I said.

"Watch it, Seaweed Brain," Nico shot at me. "I take this seriously."

"Hey! Only Annabeth can call me that!" I protested.

"Percy? Leo? Nico?" Hermione's voice came through the door, from the kitchen.

We exchanged looks and came out of the pantry. "Hey," I told Hermione. "What's up?"

Hermione crossed her arms. Suddenly she looked _way _too much like Annabeth when she was mad. "Mrs. Weasley would _murder _you if she knew you were sneaking around," Hermione said. "What were you doing in there?"

"Um, nothing!" Leo said hastily. He blushed and caught fire.

"Uh-huh. You're a really bad liar, Leo. You'd better be careful to stay on my good side. Come on." Hermione left the kitchen and headed upstairs, clearly expecting us to follow.

As we ascended the stairs, we exchanged looks that clearly said, _We'll talk later, _and followed Hermione, who led us upstairs, into the entrance hallway, and then up the grand staircase. There was a gory display of elf heads tacked to the walls. I didn't need any more goryness in my life. Seen it, done it, got the t-shirt.

After we'd come up to the second floor (or first, if the hallway and dining rooms could be called the "ground floor") Hermione led us into a drawing room. Large, ornate glass windows looked out on the gloomy square below. A dusty, unlit fireplace took up one side of the room, flanked by antique glass-fronted cabinets. The other side of the room was covered by a tapestry of sorts, decorated with a tree. A nice couch was positioned between the two large windows, complete with coffee table.

The whole room would have been a really nice place to enjoy lunch, except for one thing: the dust. And the mold. And the moth-eaten curtains. Oh, and did I mention the musty smell, worn-down _everything_, and suspicious aura of neglect? The next thing that happened was my living nightmare.

"Well, there you are!" Mrs. Weasley announced, giving us a slightly forced smile. "I'm going to put you three in charge of cleaning the cabinets, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione will clean the curtains." Mrs. Weasley jestured towards the cabinets. "Everything you need is already there."

My jaw dropped. "_What? _We have to clean _that?_" The cabinets looked like something you may find in some ancient god's abandoned house.

Hermione frowned at me. "Well, of _course _you'll be cleaning with us! You're staying in this house, so you need to help clean it!" Hermione gave me a cold look, and I realized that this was as much about proving myself as it was cleaning. She still didn't trust me because of my "grandfather"-nobody did.

"Who lives here? Some old hag who eats muffins for breakfast and soup for lunch?" Leo asked, as I was thinking that exact thing.

"_Lived_," Hermione corrected. "Mrs. Black passed away quite a while ago."

"And good riddence," someone said. I whipped around, hand creeping towards Riptide, in my pocket. I recognized the guy from dinner-Serious, no, _Sirius_, Black. Apparently, he was Harry's godfather, and had been framed for murder and whatnot.

"_Sirius! _I have _told _you not to say stuff like that!" Mrs. Weasley snapped at him.

"Well, it's true," Sirius said. "My _relatives_ are the worst-" Insert naughty words here- "-Dark wizards you could ever meet!"

"_Sirius!_"

Sirius and Mrs. Weasley glared at each other, before Sirius dropped his gaze and left the room, muttering something about a "Buckbeak," whatever that could be.

Mrs. Weasley was still handing out motherly glares, so we did the safe thing. We cleaned the drawing room until lunchtime.

* * *

After lunch, Mrs. Weasley did something very stupid. She told us to walk into some green flames and shout "Diagon Alley!" I thought it was rubbish. Oh gods-I just said _rubbish. _These British peeps were getting into my system. Anyways, that seemed like the worst idea of all time, so Nico spirited us away towards "Diagon Alley" via shadow-travel.

After our joyride through the wall, we showed up in a pub. The Weasleys came strolling out of a fireplace, covered with ash and soot. Suddenly, I was very grateful that Nico shadow-traveled us instead. Seeing us, the Weasleys bustled over. "How on _earth _did you get here? I thought you were coming after us!" Mrs. Weasley shrilled.

"Uh, long story. Something we do," Leo said awkwardly.

Nico helped me out. "An art of traveling only taught at our camp," he said, his tone suggesting no further comment.

Mrs. Weasley let us off the hook, and we headed into Diagon Alley. "Nice save," Leo told Nico.

"You shouldn't have needed it," he snorted.

"Yeah, Valdez," I agreed. "You need some lessons on 'How to Interact with Organic Lifeforms, for Dummies.'"

"Hey!" Leo protested. "I can't help my own awesome Leo-ness!"

Mr. Weasley materialized behind us, tailed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. He shot me an _I heard that _look. Geez, the adults needed to lay off of me. "I'm going to take you to Gringotts," he said.

"Grin-what?" I asked.

"Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank," Mr. Weasley replied, leading us towards an imposing white building. We walked through the bronze doors, which were flanked by two creatures in scarlet and gold, called "goblins."

On the second set of doors, silver this time, was carved an ominous message:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_  
_Of what awaits the sin of greed_  
_For those who take, but do not earn,_  
_Must pay most dearly in their turn._  
_So if you seek beneath our floors_  
_A treasure that was never yours,_  
_Thief, you have been warned, beware_  
_Of finding more than treasure there._

One thing was certain: Travis and Connor Stoll would love this place. We walked down a vast marble hall, flanked by counters manned (or goblined?) by, well, goblins.

Mr. Weasley led us to a goblin and said, "I am here to enter Mr. Perseus Riddle's vault."

"It's _Percy Jackson,_" I said through gritted teeth.

"My apologies, Percy," Mr. Weasley said. "You're registered as Perseus Riddle."

"M'kay," I muttered.

"Ah. A _Riddle,_" the goblin said, studying me through cold, cruel black eyes. The goblin's sharp, intelligent gaze sent a shiver down my spine. "You're grandfather caused us goblins _trouble. _You would do well not to follow in his footsteps."

"So I've heard," I muttered to Leo, Nico, and the others. Leo snickered, but Nico and the others just looked serious.

The goblin called over yet another goblin, who carted us through some tunnels to our vaults, using...well, a cart. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got their money before me. Harry's vault was stuffed with coins, but Ron's vault had been quite small and sad. Seeing as to how big their family was, I felt quite bad for them.

As I walked into my vault, my jaw dropped. There were golden coins, silver coins, and copper coins stacked up taller than me. "This...this is _mine?_" I asked, incredulous, looking around. There was even a small pile of drachmas-or at least, small compared to the towering piles of wizarding money. How thoughtful of said evil grandfather to leave me so much stuff.

"Yes," the goblin said curtly. "All of these coins, made _for wizards_ and _by goblins. _You have also inherited a mansion; Riddle House."

"No way," I murmered. "What am I supposed to do with all of this?"

Ron looked at me like I was nuts. "Spend it," he said. "Duh."

A sudden vision of my life came to me-living with my mom in a nice beach house, complete with infinity pool and waterbeds. Somehow, I also recieved a disturbing image of me in a silk Italian suit, like Charon. No. Way. Was that happening.

I scooped some drachmas, gold, silver, and copper coins into a sack, then left. Once we were back in Diagon Alley, the true meaning of all of my money came to me in the form of an icecream shop.

Me, Leo, and Nico exchanged looks, like, _You know what I'm thinking? _and _Yup. I know what you're thinking. _We headed towards the icecream shop, called Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, according to Hermione.

The Demigod Gang moved in. I got three XXXL icecream cones, blue moon for me, chocolate with M&Ms for Leo, and some fancy Italian thingie for Nico. Italian Ice, or something like that. I think he got lemon flavor, complete with pomegranate chunks. (This kid had serious attachment issues to his pomegranates. Okay, I was kidding about the pomegranate. Pomegranates and icecream don't mix, y'know?)

We strolled down the alley, checking out all the goodies. Owls? Fun! Maybe Annabeth would want one. I brought a barn owl. She had beautiful dark eyes and a white face. Her plumage were dappled brown mottled with black. Apparently, these owls instinctively could find people and deliver letters. I wrote a quick letter to Annabeth, in Ancient Greek:

_Dear Annabeth, _

_I got this really nice Barn Owl at some wizarding place. Apparently, they are magical and give letters and are your best buds, etc. etc. I thought you may like her. I nicknamed her Olivia for now, after the olive tree._

_-Love, Percy._

I delivered it to "Annabeth Chase, Camp Half-Blood," having Hermione write it in English for me. I told Olivia where to go, and she seemed quite content to fly free. As she flew off, I sent a silent prayer to Athena, hoping the owl would make it safely, because I _had _sent the poor bird across the ocean. Pretty stupid of me, but oh well.

After the owl incident, we got some pranking tools at Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop and some other fun stuff, like candy, before moving on to a bookshop. Leo found a book, mostly illustrations, about mechanics, so I brought it for him. Nico found a book in Ancient Greece about Dark magic, necromancy, and Umbrakinesis. Fun, right? Maybe not.

Anyways, once we were done, Mrs. Weasley came up with a bag of school supplies for each of us, then took us to get fitted for robes. After that, we used side-along apparition to get back to Number 12, Grimmuald Place. It. Was. Not. Fun. Neither was packing.

No one seemed that motivated to pack, but we knew about the importance of good, neat packing, courtesy to some adventures in the Labyrinth and on a certain flying ship, manned by a certain crew...us. We packed quickly and neatly-or at least, neat enough-and walked down the hall to Harry and Ron's room.

The first floor was the drawing room, as well as Hermione and Ginny's room and a bathroom; the floor above that featured The Harry Habitat-a Harry's Bedroom, Harry's Bathroom, Harry's Glasses, etc., as well as Ron's stuff. Also known as a bedroom and a bathroom. It featured the Demigod Den-our room, complete with stuff!

As the three of us walked into the boys' rooms, we were welcomed by Ron's scowling face. "You're packed? Already?"

"Uh-huh," I replied.

"Yeah. Percy is suprisingly good at cramming things into a dufflebag," Nico said.

"Gee, thanks," I said. "Anyway, how's it going?" I grinned, watching Ron hastily shoving flower-print underwear into his trunk.

Harry sighed. "Could you please leave us alone?"

"Okay, okay," Leo said, putting his hands up. "We'll leave ya'll alone!"

We trooped downstairs to the drawing room and plunked on the couch. "So," I said. "What do you think school's gonna be like?"

"No idea," Nico replied. "Hopefully, it welcomes trouble-making sons of Poseidon and Hephaestus."

"Ha ha. That's _so _funny, Nico," I said.

"Yup. 'Funny' describes me perfectly," he replied.

"What about 'suffers from pomegranate-itis?'" Percy asked.

"Well, I sort of hate pomegranates, actually," Nico confessed. "Just don't tell Persephone. I mean, they _taste _okay-but every time I see one..."

Leo grinned. "I get what you're saying. Bronze jars are terrifying."

Nico rolled his eyes, but Percy could tell that he was in a pretty good mood.

"So, what do you want to do about your mission?" I asked.

"About that...how much did Hermione hear?"

"Everything," Hermione said, walking into the room.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **So, the chapters will get longer from now on, and the plot will begin moving along. I hope ya'll like it!

P.S. Sorry for spelling pomegranates wrong. I fixed it. I could have sworn I saw "pomogranate" in the online dictionary, but I don't think I read it very carefully.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: **Again, sorry for spelling pomegranate wrong all this time. I fixed it. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or comments, feel free to review! If there are any typos or mistakes, it is because I am typing on a iPad. If you see anything, know that I will/have gone back and fixed it.

Now, they say the number 7 is lucky. It is, because Chapter 7 is where we watch Percy get busted. Also, thanks for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing! I never expected to get this many followers in such a short amount of time! Now, onto the story!

Edit: This used to be chapter 7; it is now chapter 6 due to changes made.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Hermione's PoV**

Hermione crossed her arms. "Well? You have some explaining to do," she told Percy and the others. "'What did you mean by "kill You-Know-Who and bring his soul to Hades'? Also, you said something about sons of Poseidon and Hephaestus, and you mentioned Hades and Persephone. Are those some kind of Greek codes? Or..."

Hermione trailed off, thinking. Surely the trio weren't _actually_ the sons of gods? Unfortunately, it made perfect sense: Percy and water, Leo and fire, and Nico and shadow. The teenagers had mentioned at least three gods, and they all had something to do with their "element."

Leo looked at Percy. "So...any ideas?"

"I have one," Hermione said coldly. _I'm not going to let them get out of this without telling me what's going on, _she thought. "How about you explain _right now, _before something bad happens?" Hermione whipped out her wand, already thinking of some spells to cast.

Percy's hand darted to his pocket. Suspicious. "Okay," he said. "This is going to sound weird, but we're demigods. Nico is a son of Hades, Leo is a son of Hephaestus, and me...well, I'm a son of Poseidon."

Hermione narrowed her eyes. The thing was, she believed them. It made perfect sense, really. "Go on," Hermione said.

"Well, demigods-also called 'half-bloods'-we all go to this camp called 'Camp Half-Blood. It's the only way most of us can survive," Percy continued.

"Survive...what, exactly?" Hermione asked, skeptical. The wizards had to deal with all kinds of Dark forces. What could three "demigods" have to deal with? Some Greek monster like the Minotaur? _Sure. _

"Well," Percy started, "there was the Titan War, Tartarus, the Giant War, and...well, the whole wizard thing."

"Don't forget the Underworld," Nico added.

"And all the monsters-the Minotaur, Medusa, Kronos, all of those nasties," Leo chipped in.

"No way," Hermione said. That. Was. Impossible. Sure, maybe wizards were a thing, but surely someone would have noticed the walking Greek mythology. "Prove it."

"Well," Nico said, smiling, "There's this little guy." He waved his hand, and a small, skeletal mouse popped out of a crack in the wall and scuttled over to Nico's outstretched hand.

Hermione gasped. This was _awful_-it was forbidden! It was _Necromancy_. Nico smiled again and made the mouse vanish, summoning a little shadow and watching the mouse scuttle through. Hermione's no-breaking-the-rules attitude would _not _let Nico get away with Necromancy and Umbrakinesis.

"Nico! Those are forbidden forms of magic! You could be sent to Azkaban!" Hermione scolded.

"Azkaban?" Percy asked, confused.

"You don't know what that is?!" Hermione nearly shrieked. "It's the worst possible prison! Guarded by the worst creatures, dementors! They suck out all of your happiness and can drive you insane!"

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he said. "Well, then I can just do..._this._" Nico stepped into a shadow, which wrapped around him before disappearing, taking Nico with it.

"Where did he go?" Hermione asked, whirling on Percy and Leo. To her astonishment and fury, they burst into laughter.

"Look behind you," Percy gasped. Hermione turned. Nico was leaning against the wall, nearly collapsing in silent laughter.

Hermione gaped. Nico snickered. "How-how-" she stammered.

"Son of _Hades_," he said. "God of the Underworld, riches, and _shadows._"

Hermione felt like an idiot. "Of _course,_" she said. "That means that Percy has control over water, and Leo can build machines and..." Hermione hesitated. Could Leo use fire? Oh, right. Leo had burst into flames earlier. _Stupid Hermione._

Just to rub it in, Leo burst into flames and whisper-screamed, "This demigod's on _FI-YAH!_"

Percy sighed. "Leo," he said. "Don't burn your pants off again."

Leo quickly put himself out.

"You do realize that you can't _keep _your little secret?" Hermione asked, using that ever-so-classic voice of hers.

"You can't tell anyone," Nico said suddenly, walking up behind her. "Or else."

"Not even Harry and Ron? What about the Headmaster, Dumbledore?" Hermione asked, planning on telling them anyways.

Nico hesitated. "Percy, stop laughing!" he said, before continuing: "_Maybe. _But we need some time to think. If too many people find out..." His voice trailed off, and Hermione realized that if everyone knew about them, it could be really bad. Really, _really _bad.

Hermione sighed. "Fine...I'll keep it a secret. _F__or now._"

Percy smiled. "Great," he said. "Now, could you explain about Hogwarts a bit?"

* * *

**Nico's PoV**

The next morning, we were ready to go to King's Cross Station. Apparently, we were going to go to "Platform 9 3/4" to board the "Hogwarts Express."

The whole house was in an uproar-the Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, and us were rushing about, making final preparations. After a quick breakfast and lots of last minute packing, we were ready to go.

"Thanks for keeping our little secret," I said to Hermione when I got a chance.

She nodded, lips pursed tightly in obvious disapproval. After she'd found out about my "Son of Hades; Ghost King; Zombie Dude" perks, Hermione had been sort of distant with me. What could I expect, though? It happened with everyone, at least temporarily.

Anyways, pretty soon we were standing at King's Cross, staring at a wall between platforms 9 and 10. "Now what?" I asked.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know? Smack our heads against the wall?"

"Alright, Percy, Nico, Leo," Mrs. Weasley said crisply. "Now all you need to do is walk right through that wall."

"What?" Percy said, aghast. "I was kidding!"

"What?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Nothing," Percy replied quickly.

"Prepare to die," Leo said cheerfully.

We walked through the wall, expecting a big headache. What we got was a busy platform bustling with people in robes, carrying trunks, owls, cats, wands...

Percy's jaws dropped. I looked around, taking it all in. In a few minutes, we boarded the train. Harry, Ginny, a boy with dark brown hair [Neville's hair is blond in the books, but I imagine him with dark brown hair courtesy to the movies] and the three of us headed off to find a compartment.

"Ron! Hermione! Aren't you coming?" Harry asked his friends.

"Er...no," Hermione said awkwardly. "We have Prefect duty. We'll come alone later, though!"

"M'kay," Harry mumbled, disheartened.

"It's okay, man," Percy said. "I know what it's like to be separated from my friends."

I raised an eyebrow, like, _Percy? That's a bit obvious, _but he just shrugged and looked unconcerned. Harry, on the other hand, looked a bit suspicious before saying "Okay...thanks, mate."

Leo blinked. "Mate? Are we pirates or something?"

Ginny laughed. "Heavens, no," she said. "It's how we talk here in England."

The brown-haired boy smiled nervously.

"Oh!" Ginny continued. "This is Neville."

Neville smiled sheepishly. "Hi," he said. "I'm Neville."

"Yes, you are," Leo said, keeping a straight face. Neville looked confused. Percy laughed, and I smiled.

A few minutes later, we realized that all of the compartments were full. "What about this one?" I asked, nudging the door with my foot.

"No; Loony Lovegood's in there," Neville mumbled. "She's weird."

"Oh, come on," Ginny said, pulling him in. We followed, wondering who "Loony" was-but very certain that she couldn't be weirder than _demigods._

We were soon proven wrong.

Luna Lovegood was a slim girl with long, dirty blond hair that hung to her waist. Her wand was tucked behind one of her ears, and she was reading a magazine upside down. She wore some strange jewelry; like radish earrings and a cork necklace. Odd. Her eyes were gray, and wide, giving her a perpetually surprised look.

"Hello," she said, in a dreamy voice. "I'm Luna; Luna Lovegood. Who are you?"

"I'm Percy, this is Nico, and this is Leo," Percy said, pointing to each of us in turn.

I slumped onto the booth in the compartment, opposite Luna. Percy and Leo sat to my left, and I leaned against the outer wall of the compartment, looking through the sliding glass door, which Ginny had closed.

Harry, Neville, and Ginny plunked down opposite me, Neville looking uncomfortable next to Luna, who had taken the window seat. "So," Luna said, "what brings you to Hogwarts?"

"Uh," Percy said, "I'm Voldemort's grandson, apparently."

Neville whimpered. "Don't say the name!" he said, eyeing us nervously.

Percy sighed. "Look, I'm going to say the name, whether you like it or not. Also, I've been through this 'oh-no-he's-going-to-kill-me-and-he's-evil business before, and I'm saying this up front: I am not evil, and I've been through more then you can imagine."

I was sort of proud of Percy for saying all that, but he was still being stinking obvious. Before anyone could reply, a witch with a trolley came up. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked.

Percy was ecstatic about all the cauldron cakes, blue licorice wands, and chocolate frogs. I grabbed some chocolate, and Leo took a fee packs of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

We chowed down, and soon, Ron and Hermione walked in and sat near Harry. Ron helped himself to the food, and for some reason, I wasn't surprised.

"So, how does this Hog's Warts work?" Leo asked around a handful of beans.

"_Hogwarts,_" Ron corrected. "You get sorted into one of four houses. Gryffindor for the brave and strong, Hufflepuff for the hard-working and loyal, Ravenclaw for the clever students, and Slytherin for the evil ones."

"Ron," Hermione chastised. "Slytherins aren't _evil._"

"Yeah, right," Harry said. "I'm sure Malfoy has good intensions at heart."

"What was that, Potter?" A skinny, white-blond-haired boy stood in the doorway, flanked by two trolls. Wait, they were just boys; very big boys. The boy had cold gray eyes, and sharp, pointed features, making him look somewhat like a ferret. "I'm a Prefect now, so I can give out detentions...and dock house points."

"Shut it, Malfoy," Harry snapped.

"I think I might take 5 points from Gryffindor..." Malfoy said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?" I sent out some invisible waves of darkness.

Malfoy paled; his personal body-guards cracked their knuckles.

Leo snickered and set his hands on fire. "I wouldn't dock house points if I were you," he said, smiling wickedly. Malfoy made an undignified squeaking sound; again, like a ferret; and fled down the corridor. Percy burst out laughing.

I smiled. "Serves him right," I said, munching on a dark-chocolate frog.

Percy nodded. "He reminds me of that kid from that old school I went to, Nancy What's-Her-Name."

Leo and I looked confused. "Long story," Percy told us.

I nodded, before taking out the book I'd gotten from Diagon Alley, the one about Dark magic, etc. etc. I was careful to hide the cover from anyone watching.

"I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. "I... must... not... look... like... a... baboon's... backside."

Everyone except Hermione and I burst out laughing, Luna laughing the loudest. Smiling, I said, "And Malfoy?"

"Hmm," Ron said. "Oh! I'll make him clean the Trophy Room like a muggle! He'll be all, 'My _father _will hear about this!"

I snickered. "He doesn't _actually _say that, does he? It would be awful if those were his last words someday."

"Oh, he says it _all _the time," Harry said darkly.

"Hmm," I said thoughtfully. "I could put an end to that."

Harry blinked. "What do you mean...put an end to it?"

"Nico can scare us half-way to Tartarus sometimes," Leo said cheerfully. "Like that one time I decorated his bunk with _My Little Pony _and _Disney _stuff-"

"_YOU _did that?!_" _I screamed, my voice rising a few octaves.

Everyone burst out laughing.

I groaned. "Leo, how many times have you annoyed me?"

Leo thought for a moment. "A few dozen?" he suggested.

"More," I said.

"A few hundred?"

"More."

"A few...million?"

"Less," I said.

"What-evs," Percy said. "'Nuff said."

We started talking about Hogwarts and Hogwarts stuff, and Hogwarts subjects, etc. etc. Eventually, the others changed into robes. We had robes too; as we'd been fitted at Madame Malkin's Robes For All Occasions, but no one bothered to put them on.

Soon, we departed the train and walked to the carriages. And that's when I saw the horses. They were black, skeletal, and had enormous bat wings and pure white eyes. In other words, they were freaking awesome. Hades had mentioned them once-they were called thestrals, and only those who had seen Death could see them. I'd seen a lot of death: The Underworld, Tartarus, people and monsters dying, and the crowning gem: Thanatos and Hades themselves.

Percy and Leo could also see them, as could Harry, and Luna. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, however, were clueless. "What are those pulling the carriages?" Harry asked them.

Hermione and Ron were worried, and Harry kept insisting that they were _right there. _"It's fine, Harry. I can see them, too. You're just as sane as I am."

Harry didn't find that very reassuring, so I added, "So can we. Percy's probably having a nice chat with them, as well; he can communicate with horses."

"Yeah," Percy said. "They say that pulling the carriages really sucks."

I could hear them, too. They were saying things like, _We only do this once a year, BUT IT STILL SUCKS, _and _Hello, lords. _One of them even reminded me of Blackjack, from what Percy had said. _Yo bosses! _He said. _'Sup in da house?_

"Uh," Percy said aloud, "Not much?"

Soon, we were standing outside the large, polished wooden doors to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A few minutes later, we were greeted by a stern looking witch-Professor McGonagall. She explained about the Sorting, and told the three of us that we would be sorted after the first years. Then, she led us through a second set of doors, to be sorted into our houses.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Using an iPad has it's perks! It underlines and corrects spelling mistakes, unlike the laptop! Wee! If you noticed, I will start to change POVs mid-chapter, to make them longer. (The original rule was to change chapters for each POV.) Sorry if I got Luna, Ginny, and Neville backwards. I forget who liked her and didn't like her at first, LOL. The next chapter will be a bit different-you'll see why.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: **So this chapter will be a bit different. Each character will be sorted from their own POV, so there will be 3-4 POVs in this chapter. Enjoy! Also, sorry for not updating for so long. I got back from my trip up north with a sore throat (which went away quickly) and a cold. After that, school started, and I was busy. The lab-top was being used by someone else, and honestly, I was being lazy. I didn't want to go back to constantly writing this. My updates will be slower, but I'll try to get the sorting thing out soon. Someone said that the "in your face humor" didn't mix with OotP's darker themes. Well, I am trying to mix J.K. Rowling's plot and characters, and Rick Riordan's humor (mixed with my own, of course) and characters. Sorry if anyone is OOC!

Thanks to rashmi agarwal for reminding me to update, and everyone else who reviewed! You know who you are. Don't worry about Percy being sorted...you will see how I did it in a moment! Also, Annabeth will join the party soon...and may even bring some friends along!

_**I forgot to add a REALLY IMPORTANT SCENE to Chapter 3-Percy "forgot" to say goodbye to his family, LoL. No, I forgot to make him, but whatever. PLEASE GO BACK AND READ CHAPTER 3!**_

Thanks for reading, following, reviewing. Now, enjoy for real!

Edit: This, obviously, is the REAL chapter 7. So as I said for the fake chapter 7...IT WILL BE MAGICAL.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**THE SORTING **

**Leo's PoV**

The Great Hall was this big room decorated with large banners. Four long, worn, wooden tables took up most of the room, with benches to sit on. A fifth table was positioned at the far end of the room, with what I assumed were staff members facing the students. The seat at the middle of the staff table was golden, unlike the other wooden seats. In it sat a man with shimmering blue and gold robes and long silver hair, complete with a beard.

"Professor Dumbledore," Percy told us. "He's the Headmaster, and also the one who told me about...all of this."

Professor McGonagall brought an old leather hat with many rips and patches up to a three-legged stool. She placed the hat on the stool and waited. A moment later, a large rip near the brim of the hat opened, and it began to sing:

_In times of old, when I was new,_  
_And Hogwarts barely started,_  
_The founders of our noble school_  
_Thought never to be parted._

_United by a common goal,_  
_They had the selfsame yearning_  
_To make the world's best magic school_  
_And pass along their learning._

_"Together we will build and teach"_  
_The four good friends decided._  
_And never did they dream that they_  
_Might some day be divided._

_For were there such friends anywhere_  
_As Slytherin and Gryffindor?_  
_Unless it was the second pair_  
_Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,_

_So how could it have gone so wrong?_  
_How could such friendships fail?_  
_Why, I was there, so I can tell_  
_The whole sad, sorry tale. _

_Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_  
_Whose ancestry's purest."_  
_Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose_  
_Intelligence is surest."_

_Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_  
_With brave deeds to their name."_  
_Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot_  
_And treat them just the same."_

_These differences caused little strife_  
_When first they came to light._  
_For each of the four founders had_  
_A house in which they might_

_Take only those they wanted, so,_  
_For instance, Slytherin_  
_Took only pure-blood wizards_  
_Of great cunning just like him._

_And only those of sharpest mind_  
_Were taught by Ravenclaw_  
_While the bravest and the boldest_  
_Went to daring Gryffindor._

_Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest_  
_and taught them all she knew,_  
_Thus, the houses and their founders_  
_Maintained friendships firm and true._

_So Hogwarts worked in harmony_  
_For several happy years,_  
_But then discord crept among us_  
_Feeding on our faults and fears._

_The Houses that, like pillars four_  
_Had once held up our school_  
_Now turned upon each other and_  
_Divided, sought to rule._

_And for a while it seemed the school_  
_Must meet an early end._  
_What with duelling and with fighting_  
_And the clash of friend on friend._

_And at last there came a morning_  
_When old Slytherin departed_  
_And though the fighting then died out_  
_He left us quite downhearted._

_And never since the founders four_  
_Were whittled down to three_  
_Have the Houses been united_  
_As they once were meant to be._

_And now the Sorting Hat is here_  
_And you all know the score:_  
_I sort you into Houses_  
_Because that is what I'm for._

_But this year I'll go further,_  
_Listen closely to my song:_  
_Though condemned I am to split you_  
_Still I worry that it's wrong,_

_Though I must fulfil my duty_  
_And must quarter every year_  
_Still I wonder whether sorting_  
_May not bring the end I fear._

_Oh, know the perils, read the signs,_  
_The warning history shows,_  
_For our Hogwarts is in danger_  
_From external, deadly foes._

_And we must unite inside her_  
_Or we'll crumble from within_  
_I have told you, I have warned you..._

_Let the Sorting now begin._

A talking hat. Why wasn't I surprised? The hat seemed quite serious, and the students seemed to realize this. They were absolutely silent, and started half-heartedly clapping.

After that, we watched people get sorted, until it was our turn. We weren't getting sorted with the first years, and instead were sorted after them. Why? Well, the first years were very short and it would have been awkward.

"Valdez, Leo!" Professor McGonagall called out. I walked up to the stool and plunked the hat on my head.

_Hmm, _a voice said in my head. _Interesting. _Very _interesting. I haven't had one of you to sort in a very long time._.._but where to put you...?_

Holy Hera! Could everyone hear the hat?! That would be awful, I thought. _So, you sort me? _I thought at the hat.

_Yes, I do. Hmm. You can be quite reckless, but you are brave. You're good with machinery...oh! I haven't seen a wizard or demigod who could control fire in a long, long time. Interesting. And you're past...so much pain, and yet you push on. Well, it's quite obvious you belong in...GRYFFINDOR! _The hat belted out the last word.

Relieved, I jumped to my feet, placed the hat back on the stool, and walked to the Gryffindor table, sitting down next to Harry. I had been worried that the hat would go up in flames, like my face. I turned my attention to Nico, who was next to be tortured by the hat. Huh. I wondered how _that_ would turn out.

* * *

**Nico's POV**

I walked up to the hat as my name was called on the list of doom. Sitting on the stool, I let Professor McGonagall put the hat on my head. On the outside, I tried to remained calm and poised-I have the whole Son of Hades act to think of, you know? Also, I wasn't about to let Draco Malfoy snicker at me-but on the inside, unfortunately, my heart was doing some kind of acrobatic loops in my chest. I'd had already been sorted into the weird, evil group once, as a son of Hades. I didn't want that to happen again.

The hat was silent for several moments on my head. I could hear it take in a breath of sorts, before it said, _You are going to be a challenge to sort. So much pain...and death...and-and-_the hat seemed overwhelmed. I decided to help it.

"Yeah, yeah," I mutter, under my breath. In my mind, I said: _I know. I've been through a lot. Now, get on with sorting me. _

The hat seemed to collect itself, then continued, probing deeper into my mind, which I didn't particularly appreciate. _You have great power, _it observed. _Your fatal flaw is holding grudges. Perhaps you belong in Slytherin..._

_Oh please, _I thought. _If you sort me with Malfoy, I swear you'll regret it._

The hat, of course, ignored me. It murmured, _But your power is also one of your greatest fears, along with being left out and-_I knew what was coming. I clamped down my mental shields, but it was too late. The hat continued, _-and your true love being discovered._

Drat. The hat was a pile of schist. _Really? REALLY? _I thought at it.

_You're a feisty one, _the hat mused, sounding amused. _Well, you may fit in in Slytherin, but I feel you belong in...GRYFFINDOR!_

I whipped the hat off my head and plunked it on the stool, before walking in what I hoped was a dignified manner to sit by Leo. "So, what do you think will happen to Percy?" I asked him.

Leo grinned. "I have absolutely no idea," he said, looking as happy about it as I was worried. Of course, we both were worried, but probably not nearly as much as Percy...

* * *

**Percy's POV**

So. I'd just watches my friends talk to a talking hat and get sorted into their new "family." I was really excited. Nope. Not really.

"And now," Professor McGonagall said, "the final student to be sorted. Riddle, Perseus-" her voice choked on the name-"-who prefers to be called Percy Jackson."

Yay, I thought. They _do _learn, these wizards. I stepped forwards put the Supreme Hat of Doom on my head.

_Why, that's not very nice of-HOLY HADES! IT'S HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED'S GRANDSON! WE ARE IN BIG, BIG TRO-_the Supreme Hat of Doom cut himself off mid thought. _My apologies. I see. Tom Riddle's grandson. You have his good looks, but your personality..._the hat began rummaging around in my mind, flipping through my memories and feelings and mumbling to itself, like my mind was a very interesting book. I blocked some thoughts, however. The truth was, I didn't trust the hat. _Not too ambitious.__ Good. Maybe you can be saved after-_sigh. This hat was so annoying. I told it so.

_Ahem, _the Sorting Hat said. _Recklessness. Not too ambitious. But, but, but. You're grandfather is Slytherin through and through, and you are as cunning a Slytherin as ever. And the element of Slytherin house is water...in fact...you belong in...SLYTH-_I heard the dreaded word coming from the Sorting Hat's mouth. Instantly, I showed it the rest of my mind. I could feel it registering my fatal flaw, loyalty, my impulsiveness, all my epic fails, all of my F-grade math tests...and the hat changed it's announcement in a microsecond. _GRYFFINDOR! _it yelled.

Where there had been a decent splattering of applause for Leo and Nico, for me there was silence. "Oookkkay then," I said, walking awkwardly to the Gryffindor table. As I sat down, a few people seemed to realize their mistake and start clapping. However, I felt like even more of an outcast here then my friends. Who would ever _like _Lord Mouldy Shorts grandson, anyways? I pushed the thought aside. My normal (ish) life with the demigods was good enough. Still, as Dumbledore started the feast, and food magically appeared on our plates, I couldn't shake the feeling that my year here would be a tough one-and not just because of my fellow Hogwarts students.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **The hat scene where it speaks in characters' minds was so hard to do! I didn't want the Sorting Hat to seem very OOC, and I also needed to decide how much it understood about demigods. Since Hecate blessed/gave powers to the wizards, as in many, many other fanfics, the hat would know something about them. However, it may have forgotton or not been told everything, so, yeah. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

P.S. I know they do the Sorting alphabetically, but I wanted it to be Leo, Nico, Percy for suspense, LOL.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Notes: **

I will be posting a cover soon, if I haven't already. I hope you enjoy! **One more thing: I've been writing HP characters in third person, and demigods in 1st person, but I may start alternating between the two for characters depending on what mood I'm in. I won't, however, change from 1st to 3rd or vice versa without changing POVs or starting a new chapter. That would be very confusing.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Percy's POV**

I was soon distracted from my thoughts by all the _food. _There was chicken pot pie, chicken roast, chicken drumsticks, a multitude of salad and fruit, self-filling goblets, sheperd's pie, and a ton of other yummy British food.

I ordered my goblet to fill with blue cherry coke, then piled my plate high with some "pie" and anything unhealthy that I could find. Leo made a small fire with his hand under the table, so we coud drop some food in for the gods. Then, I dug in. I had inhaled two cups of coke and a chicken pot pie before I remembered the wizards and my friends. I looked up. "So, what do you think?" I asked Nico and Leo.

"Mmf," Leo replied, his face stuffed with food. He swallowed, then said, "This stuff is almost as good as Chef Valdez's Tofu Tacos!"

Nico nodded approvingly. "It's okay," he said, as he ate some chicken salad. These British people sure liked their chicken.

I continued to gorge myself on food. Hey, demigods eat alot, okay? Then, the dessert arrived. It came out of nowhere, leaving behind clean, empty plates for a split second before making its glorious appearance. My eyes widened. Pie, icecream, custard, pudding...and I was already full! Leo grinned. "Oh yeah!" he said, shoveling dessert onto his plate.

"Oh _no,_" Nico said. "I have to eat _this _too?"

I smiled at him. "Hey, don't worry! If you can bust in with a zombie army and save the day, surely you can eat dessert, right?"

"I suppose," he said, before putting some Italian gelato on his plate.

Soon, the dessert disappeared as well, and I hadn't even finished my blueberry pie. Bumblebee*-wait, _Dumbledore_-started saying a speech, before he was interuppted by a little _Hem hem. _I looked around, alarmed. I knew the sound of a monster when I heard one. _Aha__! _A..._toad _was sitting at the staff table. SHe wore a frilly pink dress and cardigan, and had a stretched, toadlike face, and mousy hair topped with a little black bowtie.

***SLIGHTLY EDITED CANON TEXT***

With horror, I realized that that was going to be one of our _teachers. _Oh. My. Gods. Please no. Professor Dumbledore gave her a curious look, but allowed her to take the stage. She straightened her frilly cardigan, stepped up to Dumbledore's podium, and said in a disgustingly sweet, girly voice that was a little breathy: "Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome." She let out another little throat-clearing cough ("Hem, hem") and continued: "Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"

I glanced around. None of the faces I could see looked happy; on the contrary, they all looked rather taken aback at being addressed as though they were five years old. Seriously, I'd been in _two _wars, almost died countless times, and had faced Tartarus himself, and now this toad was talking to me like I was some dumb fish at the bottom of the ocean.

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!" Students exchanged looks at this; some of them were barely concealing grins.

"I'll be her friend as long as I don't have to borrow that cardigan," a girl at our table whispered to another girl, and both of them lapsed into silent giggles.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again ("Hem, hem"), but when she continued, some of the breathiness had vanished from her voice. She sounded much more businesslike and now her words had a dull learned-by-heart sound to them. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wiz- arding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching." Professor Umbridge paused here and made a little bow to her fellow staff members, none of whom bowed back. Professor McGonagall's dark eyebrows had contracted so that she looked positively hawklike, I saw her exchange a significant glance with Professor Sprout as Umbridge gave another little "Hem, hem" and went on with her speech. "Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation . . ."

At this point, Leo exchanged significant glances with us, then started doing a bad impression of Umbridge's speech. I nearly collapsed in silent giggles, but Nico remained serious. The other students wore an expression I knew well-the _I'm so bored but I'll pretend to listen_ look. The teachers, however, were still listening very attentively, and Hermione seemed to be drinking in every word Umbridge spoke, though judging by her expression, they were not at all to her taste. ". . . because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited." She sat down. Dumbledore clapped. The staff applauded too, but they didn't look happy about it. A few students joined in, but most had been taken unawares by the end of the speech, not having listened to more than a few words of it, and before they could start applauding properly, Dumbledore had stood up again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now — as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held . . ."

"Yes, it certainly was illuminating," said Hermione in a low voice.

"You're not telling me you enjoyed it?" Ron said quietly, turning a glazed face upon Hermione. "That was about the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy. Percy Weasley, I mean."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Sounds like something from-" I cut myself off. I'd been about to say "the Fields of Punishment" but that would've given us away. Instead, I said: "-I mean, sounds like something my old teacher would say to annoy us"

"I said illuminating, not enjoyable," said Hermione, giving me a suspicious look. "It explained a lot."

"Did it?" said Harry in surprise. "Sounded like a load of waffle to me."

"There was some important stuff hidden in the waffle," said Hermione grimly.

"Was there?" said Ron blankly.

"Yeah," Leo added. "I wan to set that lady's cardigan on fire for boring me so much."

"How about 'progress for progress's sake must be discouraged'? How about 'pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited'?"

"Well, what does that mean?" said Ron impatiently.

"I'll tell you what it means," said Hermione ominously. "It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."

Nico nodded. "Even I could see that," he said.

***end of slightly edited canon text***

I realized that they were right-I just hadn't been paying any attention, or I would've noticed that something was off with her speech. "What's the Ministry?" I asked.

Hermione launched into a detailed description, while us demigods listened carefully. Of course, Hermione couldn't _tell _we were listening. Leo was fiddling with his machines, I was looking around the Great Hall, and Nico was glaring at a something, which I thought was odd until I reaized he was staring at Umbridge.

Once Hermione had finished, she said, "Were you listening _at all?_"

"Yeah," I answered. "Ministry. Magic police. Wizarding goverment. Got it."

Hermione sighed, as though expecting me to say something different, then said, "Come on. I'll lead you to the Gryffindor dormitory."

"Actually, I would like to speak with the three of them," a voice said behind us. I turned. Professor Dumbledore was standing behind us, his blue eyes twinkling. "Please follow me to my office," he said, before turning in a swish of robes and striding up the Grand Staircase.

Nico Leo, and I followed him up the (moving) staircases, to the "Headmaster's Office." We entered, and the professor asked us to sit down opposite his desk. We sat down in the three comfy, ornate seats and faced Professor Dumbledore.

"So, what do you think of my school?" Dumbledore asked, smiling warmly.

"The food's good, but the name is ridiculous," I blurted without thinking. "Also, why is there a bird eating your sandwich?"

"Ah, that is Fawkes, my pheonix. Don't mind him; I give him cheese sandwiches; he's very spoiled sometimes." **[don't ask; IDK what I was thinking xD]** Professor Dumbledore smiled, but then his expression became serious. "I understand that you demigods can have...ah, _difficulties _following normal school rules. To make things easier, I have translated all of your textbooks to Ancient Greek."

"Thank the gods," Leo said, relieved.

"In addition," Dumbledore continued, "you will not have to wear the school robes; but you will have to wear the other uniform attire."

"_Thank you!_" I said, grinning. "Do I have to wear a pink fluffy cardigan instead?"

Dumbledore smiled somewhat wearily, as though he had already had enough of us-and Umbridge. "Luckily, Percy, no one has made pink cardigans part of the uniform, so no, you will not."

"Can I wear my toolbelt?" Leo asked.

"If you must," Dumbledore said. "But be aware that wizards, like demigods, can see through the Mist. Also, please do your best to follow the rules, or you wil be given a detention, and wizarding detentions can be more..._unpleasant, _shall we say, than mortal ones."

"Okay, then," I said. "Anything else?"

"Keep your identies hidden."

"Uh...Hermione knows," I said.

Dumbledore smiled dryly. "Yes, I'm not surprised that she has figured you out. Eventually, when you decide it's best, Harry and Ron may know too, but try to refrain from telling the whole school."

"Yes, sir," Nico said, nodding.

"I didn't know you were so polite," Leo said, smirking.

Nico rolled his eyes. I snickered. Then, Dumbledore said: "Well, you should be off to the Gryffindor dormitory. My Patronus will guide you there."

The three of us demigods walked out of Dumbledore's office and into the 7th floor corridor. I had no idea what a Patronus was.

Suddenly, a silver bird-a pheonix-appeared out of nowhere in front of us. It flapped its silver wings at us and turned into a silver orb, then zoomed down the corridor, pausing at the corner.

"Well, that must be the Patronus," Nico said, studying it.

"Yeah, Death Boy! Let's go!" Leo said.

"Do _not _call me Death Boy!"

"Uh...we should really get going," I said, trying to calm things down before Nico and Leo started summoning fire and skeletons or something.

The three of us nitwits headed down the corridor and thrugh the castle, following the pheonix/orb/wisp of silver vapor/Patronus thingie. Soon, we arrived at a portrait of a fat lady wearing a pink dress. She opened her eyes and said, "Password, please?"

"I'll just knock," I said as I rapped the painting on the nose. Okay, I'm not that mean. I just knocked on the frame.

Hermione opened the door. "About time," she said. "The password's_ miimbulus mimbletonia. _Now, come in."

The Gryffindor common room was cozy, like the Big House at Christmas. The chairs, tapestries, curtains, fireplace, carpets, couches, and decorations were all red and gold. Two staircases led upstairs-presumably to the bedrooms or "dormitories."

"Sit," Hermione said, indicating some red and gold arm-chairs by the fireplace. "We have things to discuss."

"Uh...okay," I said. We sat and Hermione gave us _the look. _The one teachers use when they're wondering whether I should get detention or kicked out.

"I'm giving you two options. You either reveal your true indentities to Harry and Ron by tommorow night, or _I _will tell them-while you are _in the room _so they can yell at you."

Leo sighed. "Fine. But I'm telling them that I'm the best."

"No, you are _not_," Nico said sternly. "You disapeared for _sixth months! _I had to organize the punching line.*"

"Aww, man! Don't mention the punching line! It brings back bad memories..."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Alright, go to bed. School starts in the morning. Your dorm is the one marked '5th Year.'" Hermione pointed to one of the staircases, and we tromped up there to find a neat dormitory with four-poster beds with red and gold curtains that complemented the ones on the windows. Our luggage was at the foot of our beds; I found mine and proceeded to "organize": that is, I got ready for bed, collapsed on said bed, and said to the others: "So, what to you think?"

"This place is...interesting," Nico said.

"How's the mission from Hades going?" I asked.

"Not well," he replied, stuffing his stuff in his suitcase and flopping on the bed. "I've found absolutely nothing."

"Hmm," I said. "Maybe this place has a library."

"Ha ha. Like we can actually read."

I drew the curtains closed, and my last thought as I fell asleep was: _Oh gods. Please don't let school be...well, school._

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Hi! The next chapter will be them getting in detention. Also: *****For those of you who haven't started Trials of Apollo, Leo disappeared for 6 months with Calypso. They were lost in the Sea of Monsters when they found their way back, using a homing beacon from back at camp. Nico organized everyone to line up and punch/hit/kick Leo for scaring them.

Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes: **Sorry I scared you! My email is back! **WE ARE SAFE! **And now...I present to you: the Hogwarts teachers' worst nightmare...**THE_DEMIGODS...**

The cover artwork of Percy is by viria13, Viria, etc. who does all the art on the wiki. Harry is by...um...oh, Varia again! No wonder they looked similar. **Note: when re-editing the whole story again, I put this info on chapter 1. If it seems familiar, that is why. **Anyways, enjoy! Also, Hagrid got back on time, and he isn't as bad as he was in the book. (Bad as in hurt/injured.) Grawp may or may not be in this. But he probably will.

P.S. They get their wands! Yay!

* * *

**Nico's PoV**

Mornings. They sucked. Nico was 110% convinced of that. Mornings=school, training, and Mrs. O'Leary barking to go pee whenever he babysat her for Percy.

Nico's day started with Leo sneaking up on him and Percy and waving fire in their faces shouting "GOOD MORNING! YA'LL BETTER GET UP!"

It was extremely disconcerting.

Nico through the covers over his head and rolled over. "COME ON, NICO! PERCY'S ALREADY UP!"

"Fine," Nico mumbled, before flinging the covers away and beginning to get ready for the day. When the three were ready, they headed down to the common room. Leo promptly plopped down in an armchair and began bouncing up and down on the cushions. Percy yawned; his hair looked like he had still just gotten out of bed; Nico used to fond that cute, and he still did, a little bit.

Pushing his thoughts aside, Nico and the others sat around and talked about how much they dreaded the school day to start. It was a pleasant conversation.

A few minutes, Nico heard a knock on the Gryffindor common room. Exchanging glances with the others, he watched as Percy got up and opened the door.

Professor Dumbledore stood outside the common room, wearing silver and blue robes that matched his beard. "Hello, Percy, Leo, Nico," he greeted them. "Meet me in my office. I have something to give you."

Leo looked at Nico. He arched his eyebrows like, "Well, THIS sounds interesting!"

Nico rolled his eyes. He wondered what Professor Dumbledore had to show them. Probably nothing worthy of good sleep time.

When the four finally reached Dumbledore's office, Nico was just about ready to say, "Nope. I'm going back to bed." Instead, he sat in one of the chairs and looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

"I have brought you here to give you your wands," Dumbledore announced pleasantly.

Leo grinned. "Wands? Fun!" he said.

Dumbledore smiled. "Percy, your wand is genuine, handpicked by Hecate and Poseidon. Nico and Leo, your's work somewhat normally, but have some...safeguards built in."

Percy blinked. "Why is mine normal?"

Nico was surprised he hadn't figured it out. If he was a descendant of Voldemort, he had magic in his blood. Duh. Professor Dumbledore confirmed his suspicions. "You are a wizard, Percy. You just haven't discovered your powers yet. Non-wizard Half-bloods can perform magic, but their magic is somewhat...unpredictable compared to wizards. The wands respond differently to them."

"Uh...okay," Percy said. "But I already have powers."

"I meant your wizarding powers," Dumbledore corrected himself. "Here are the wands."

Dumbledore brought out three narrow boxes and removed the lids. Taking out a long, black wand with intricate bone carvings, he said to Nico: "This wand is made of black popular wood. It was a core of thestral hairs."

He handed Nico the wand. To Nico, it looked and felt perfectly normal, but he knew it had magical abilities, somehow. However, Nico felt that his own abilities would serve him perfectly fine.

"Leo, your wand is made of ash wood, with a core of dragon heartstring."

Leo took his wand, which was designed with dragon wings and flames, and examined every inch of it. As he raised it to eye level and looked at the tip, it spurted a burst of flame into his face. Leo was so startled he almost dropped the wand.

Nico smirked. "Look who's smart now, Repair Boy," he said.

Nico's insult had no effect on Leo. He grinned and set the wand down on the desk, before his hand burst into flames.

"And Percy..." Dumbledore paused, maybe for suspense, maybe to think of what he would say. "Your wand is made of palm wood, and has a core of Pegasus tail hairs."

Percy's wand was a warm brown-gray, with hints of amber and even blue, somehow. It had, predictably, wave designs and a fish handle. Nico expected Percy to have something snarky to say. He was right, naturally.

"What's with the fish?" Percy asked. The wand squirted him in the face. "Gods, these wands are sassy, like me!"

Leo rolled his eyes.

"Be careful with the wands," Dumbledore instructed. "You didn't get them in Diagon Alley, because..."

"You didn't trust us?" Percy asked innocently.

"Frankly, yes," Dumbledore admitted. "You may go now. No magic in the corridors or outside of school."

The three demigods headed out of Dumbledore's office, and after several dead-ends and circling around, somehow managed to find their way to the Great Hall in time for breakfast.

Nico joined Leo and Percy as they plunked down next to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Sup," Percy greeted them.

"G'morning," Harry said. "Where where you?"

"Dumbledore's office!" Leo said cheerfully. "Just got our brand new wands!" Leo took his out to show off. His hand burst into flame, along with the wand. Luckily, it didn't burn. "Whoops," Leo said, stuffing his hand under the table. Some of the other students gave him alarmed looks.

Nico sighed. Leo would give them away for sure. "Leo, you need to get in control here."

"Yes, your Majesty the King of Ghosts and Halloween decorations," Leo said, giving Nico a mock-bow. Nico rolled his eyes. Didn't Leo know anything about secrecy?

After breakfast, Professor McGonagall passed out class schedules. Percy, Leo, and Nico had the same ones as Harry, of course.

Ron groaned. "We have History of Magic, Potions, Divination, and Defense Against the Dark Arts! What a horrible Monday!"

"Uh, what's so bad about those?" Percy asked. Nico looked at Ron warily, waiting for him to announce their doom.

"History of Magic is the most boring topic ever! All Professor Binns does is stand and talk!" Ron announced.

Leo grinned. "I could do something about that," he said deviously.

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Leo? What do you mean?"

Leo waved his hand. "Oh, nothing much," he said airily.

Percy nodded. "Only a few little tricks."

A smile tugged at the corner of Nico's mouth. In demigod speak, "a few little tricks" and "nothing much" usually meant some explosions, lava, sharp objects, and monsters. "Yeah," he said, exchanging conspiratorial glances with Percy and Leo. Nico suspected that this History of Magic class could be fun.

"What about Potions?" Percy asked. "Because if it involves water-"

"Snape hates me," Harry interjected. "He's unfair, hates Gryffindors, and plays favorites on the Slytherins."

"Sounds like Mrs. Dodds," Percy said.

Nico smirked. "Yeah. Alecto does like to play favorites."

Leo grinned. "Sounds awesome! What's Divination?"

Harry exchanged a suspicious glance with Hermione and Ron. "It's...telling the future. We think Professor Trelawney is a fraud-"

"You mean, we know she's a fraud," Hermione muttered.

"-but she did give me a true prophecy a few years ago," Harry finished.

Percy looked terrified. He looked at Leo and Nico. "No," he said.

"Oh no," Leo added. "Not another doomsday prophecy."

Nico nodded in agreement. Prophecies was just what they didn't need.

* * *

**Percy's PoV**

History of Magic being boring was an understatement. Professor Binns was a ghost, and his voice made me want to rest my head on my desk and take a nap. Everyone other than Hermione looked dazed and glassy-eyed, like me.

Leo fidgeted in his chair, then, finally, made a few little automation demigod stick figures that could be controlled by hand movements. They also could harness mini demigod powers matching whoever used them, so Nico, Leo, and I fought epic stick figure battles for the rest of class, while Hermione looked at us disapprovingly.

Next, we had Potions. Considering what we'd heard about this Professor Snape, we decided to turn off the stick figures.

This class was in the dungeons, which were cold, dreary, and basically made me feel sorry for whatever poor Slytherin had to sleep down here. We seated ourselves way in the back and waited for class to start.

The moment Snape walked in and closed the door, the class was dead silent. Snape walked in with a swoosh of black robes, and faced us at the front, near a blackboard. "Today, you will be brewing the Draught of Living Death," he said. His voice was cold, ominous, and generally sounded like a teacher who would happily dump us in a sack and feed us to harpies.

"Instructions are on the board," he said, flicking his wand and making neat instructions in white cursive appear. "Ingredients are in the cupboard. If you make a mistake, the results could be...unpleasant."

Snape said the word like it meant "fun" or "amusing." I didn't like that. Nico, who's dyslexia wasn't nearly as bad as Leo's and mine, read the instructions, checking with Harry whenever he was unsure. Then, the "fun" began.

The potion was hard to make. Leo just tossed stuff in, and, if it started looked dangerous, evaporated it with his hand. I decided to actually try, and started reading Nico's notes in Ancient Greek. Nico, on the other hand, was putting ingredients in pretty much any way he wanted, muttering to himself.

I asked him what he was doing.

Nico gave me a thin smile. "Well, I'm a son of Hades. I can make it however I want."

That sounded ominous. I watched nervously as Nico tossed a lump of stuff in, and hoped it wouldn't explode in my face.

When class was over, Snape glided over to our table and looked down his hooked nose at us. "What is this?" He gestured scornfully at my dangerous soup, then looked at Leo's. He raised a greasy eyebrow. "Empty? Nothing at all?"

Leo nodded, trying not to smirk. Snape made a mark on his parchment and looked at Nico's. "Your's is acceptable," he said, making another mark on his paper before moving off to examine other people's' concoctions.

Nico looked at us. "Mine was actually a perfect batch of killing stuff," he whispered. "Although Hades wouldn't approve of me using it."

I was pretty sure that wasn't a good thing, but I just nodded. Ron stretched. "Well, that went okay," he said. "Divination next. Hermione won't be there."

We headed up to the "North Tower" where Divination was, and entered through a circular trapdoor on the ceiling. The room was awful. It was covered in drapes, cushions, pillows, round tables, ornate armchairs, and reeked of perfume, tea, and other (poisonous?) fumes.

Professor Trelawney looked like some sort of insect, as she had huge glasses that magnified her eyes, and wore a colorful hippie dress, and way too much jewelry. "Hello, class," she said airily. "Today, we will be interpreting dreams..."

Oh gods. My dreams did not need interpreting. They were usually about: Doom, doom, doom, monsters, death, prophecies, Tartarus, Tartarus, and Tartarus. Indeed, my dreams were not a happy subject.

Nico looked at me and mouthed, "Definitely not."

Leo snorted and whispered, "Okay, she's nuts."

We doodled in our notebooks (yes, we were sensible enough to not use parchment) and I fiddled with Riptide, which was in writing mode. (Yes, it can write. If you tap the cap to the sword hilt, it becomes a writing pen. I just had to do it fast enough so no one saw the sword.)

Our lovely doodling session was ruined when Professor Trelawney floated up to us. "Hello, my dears," she said breezily. "What wonderful sources of knowledge have you found so far?"

"Uh..." I said, looking at my squiggly lines and stick figures. "Not much."

Seeming to notice us for the first time, Professor Trelawney examined us through her glasses. "Ah, you're the new students. It's a pleasure to-"

Suddenly, Professor Trelawney's eyes changed. She looked at us with a new intensity, which was quite disturbing, as her eyes appeared to be as large as tennis balls.

In a harsh voice unlike the breezy one she'd used before, Professor Trelawney began reciting all the worst lines of all of the prophecies we'd been in so far. My jaw dropped. She really was a seer. Finishing, she broke out of her trance and, seeing our dumbstruck faces, asked, "Did I miss something?"

"Um...no," I stammered. I looked at Nico and Leo. "I think we'll go now."

That was Nico's cue to grab us and melt into the shadows.

* * *

**Harry's PoV**

The new students didn't show up for the rest of class. This didn't help calm Harry's suspicions.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked about the suspicious trio over lunch, as they still hadn't shown up. "What do you think is up with them?" Ron asked. "Hermione?"

Harry and Ron looked expectantly at her, but she just looked at her food and said, "I don't know."

That was most unlike Hermione, Harry thought. She always had something to say, whether the truth or a theory.

"Hermione?" Harry asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Hermione said, a little too quickly. "I need to go somewhere."

Hermione whisked off out of the Great Hall, leaving Harry more determined than ever to figure out the mystery behind Percy, Leo, and Nico.

* * *

**Leo's PoV**

I groaned. "Come on! Do we seriously have to go to the library now?"

"Yes," Nico said. "We do. Now."

He pulled us along, until we reached a large room filled floor to ceiling with books. Gods know how he had found it. "Here," he said, letting us go. "We need to find information on wizards, Voldemort, and dark magic."

"Dark magic?" I asked, rubbing my forearm. "Isn't that, like, illegal or something?"

Nico nodded. "Yes. And that's why Voldemort uses it."

"But how will we read the books?" Percy asked. "You know I can't read! Leo, can you read?"

I thought for a split-second, then replied, "If I give myself a headache."

Percy elbowed me. "That's not the right answer!" he said. "The answer is 'No, I can't, so don't even try to make me!'"

I just shrugged. Nico had already darted off into the restricted section, using the shadows to hide from the librarian stalking the aisles. I figured her name was Madam Pince, as that was the name on the librarian's desk. Nico came back a few moments later, carrying a stack of black, ominous, dusty books.

He dumped them on the desk, and pointed at us with his pale fingers. "You. Here. Now."

I walked over, Percy loudly protesting behind me. "Nico? What's gotten into you now?" Nico seemed super intense, even more than when I had three cups of caffeine in the morning.

"My father's mission," Nico said grimly. "It's the key to it all."

"Oh," Percy said. "It's to find out how Voldemort cheats death, isn't it?"

Nico nodded, satisfied that we were finally catching on. "Yes," he said. "I have a few theories. These books can help."

"And so can I," said a voice behind us. "If you do me a little favor."

Hermione walked out from behind a row of books. She really was way too clever, and way too good at sneaking up on us.

"What happened in Divination class?" Hermione asked us.

"How did you know?" I asked, totally lost.

"Harry and Ron told me," Hermione told me curtly. "But what happened?"

Percy shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "Professor Trelawney just said a ton of ominous lines from old prophecies," he said. "Nothing new."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at the books. "That's Dark magic," she said. "Voldemort?"

Dang, that kid was smart, I thought. Nico nodded, then turned a few pages, narrowing his dark brown eyes, almost black, at the paper.

"I'll help you look through the books," Hermione said briskly. "I'm good at that. What do you know so far?"

Nico thought for a moment. "It's something related to his soul," he said at last. "Something that allows him to somehow come back to life. That's why Hades noticed."

"Hmm." Hermione opened one of the books and started skimming through the pages three times as fast as us. Not having dyslexia had it's perks in the modern world. Those Ancient Greeks had a seriously inconvenient language for us demigods-did they all have dyslexia? Did the gods have dyslexia? I don't think so.

Hermione suddenly sat up straight, which was probably as far towards "leaping with excitement" as she could go. "Look," she said, showing the book to us. "This may be it."

Hermione read the passage out loud. "Horcruxes," she said. She continued reading, her eyes narrowing as she read. Then, she closed the book and looked at the cover. "Secrets of the Darkest Art," she read. Then, she gasped. "Dumbledore removed this book from the library! How did you get it?"

She glared at us. Nico raised an eyebrow. "I noticed it while I was in Professor Dumbledore's office," he said innocently.

Hermione started at him. "And how did you steal it?"

Nico smiled. "Oh, just a little shadow-travel."

Hermione rolled her eyes, and muttered, just loud enough for us to hear: "If these idiots have powers, they should at least refrain from misusing them!"

"Powers? What powers?" Harry and Ron walked into the library.

"Hermione, what's going on?" Ron asked, giving us (a.k.a. me) a pointed look.

Hermione looked at us. "I helped you," she said coolly. "I kept your little secret. Now, you need to tell them...or I will."

Harry looked at us as though he just knew something like this would happen. Urgh. These wizards! "What did you do?"

I grinned. "Yo, we're half-bloods! Part Greek god! You can laugh now."

Harry glared at us and said, "Tell the truth."

"Sadly, he is," Nico said.

Ron came to the conclusion first, which I found slightly ironic. His jaw dropped. "Is that why you're elementalists? Because of the gods?"

Percy smirked. "That describes my entire life," he said. "Because of the gods. Because of the prophecy. Because the monsters want me dead. Because-"

"Enough 'because,'" Nico said. "That's a whole load of-"

"Schist," Percy said cheerfully.

Nico blinked. "What?"

"Type of rock. Grain spirits. Long story."

"Ah." Nico looked confused. "Anyways," he said, getting back to the topic at hand, "we're demigods. Well, Percy's a wizard because of Voldemort, and Leo and I are faking."

Harry looked at Hermione. "True?"

She nodded. "And Nico's father, Hades, gave him a mission to defeat Voldemort for cheating death."

"Hey!" Nico protested.

"You asked for it."

"How?"

"By keeping secrets. Breaking the rules. Going into the restricted section and stealing the book," Hermione replied.

Nico sighed. "Fine. Voldemort's secret is horcruxes. It means splitting your soul into pieces by killing someone."

Nico gave Harry a funny look when he said this, as though he knew something, but wasn't sure if it was true.

Harry blinked, then whirled around and started running out of the library. Over his shoulder, he said, "I have to tell Dumbledore! About the horcruxes!"

Hermione and Ron looked at us. "Well then," Hermione said. "I guess we should head to D.A.D.A."

* * *

**Nico's PoV**

I walked into the D.A.D.A. room and gagged.

Pink.

That was all I could see. Lacy, frilly, ugly pink. Flowers! Kittens! Aphrodite's Cabin times a million!

I sat in the very back, next to Percy, Leo, Hermione, and Ron. Harry came in at the last minute, gasping. "Dumbledore's looking into it," he whispered. I nodded.

And then Umbridge walked in, and the class grew silent, tentative about the new teacher like any smart class should be.

***edited canon text here***

"Well, good afternoon!" she said in a girly voice that made my skin itch like spiders were crawling over it.

A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," we chanted back at her, although I gave her a dark look. She, naturally, was looking in the opposite direction.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; the order "wands away" had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting. We shoved our fake wands back inside our little bags and pulled out pens, Leo's little toys, and our notebooks. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was short and lacy (how could wood be lacy?) and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:

Defense Against the Dark Arts: A Return to Basic Principles.

"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your O.W.L. year.

"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."

I had no idea what she was talking about; neither did Percy and Leo.

She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:

Course aims:

1\. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.

2\. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic

can legally be used.

3\. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for

practical use.

For a couple of minutes the room was full of the sound of scratching quills on parchment. When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims she said, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class.

"I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply 'Yes, Professor Umbridge,' or 'No, Professor Umbridge.' So, has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room.

"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, 'Basics for Beginners.' There will be no need to talk."

I looked at Leo, silently asking, Think you can manage it? He looked back at me like, Sure, as long as she doesn't notice me messing around. He then began to tinker with his machine parts, probably making some new complicated invention that the world desperately needed. Or perhaps not.

I tapped my fingers on the desk, my gaze wandering. And then...

"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, who had raised her hand. Umbridge acted as though she had only just noticed her, even though she'd been like that for several minutes, until she'd drawn the attention of half the class and Umbridge couldn't ignore her any more.

"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione.

"Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge, showing her small, pointed teeth. "If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows. Nico was started to hate her, but at least he had something worthwhile to do now-watch the action unfolding.

"And your name is — ?"

"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.

"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells." There was a short silence in which many members of the class turned their heads to frown at the three course aims still written on the blackboard.

"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron ejaculated loudly.

"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr. — ?"

"Weasley," said Ron, thrusting his hand into the air.

Professor Umbridge, smiling still more widely, turned her back on him. Harry and Hermione immediately raised their hands too. Professor Umbridge's pouchy eyes lingered on Harry for a moment before she addressed Hermione.

"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" asked Professor Umbridge in her falsely sweet voice.

"No, but —"

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way —"

"What use is that?" said Harry loudly. "If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a —"

"Hand, Mr. Potter!" sang Professor Umbridge.

Harry thrust his fist in the air. Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him again, but now several other people had their hands up too.

"And your name is?" Professor Umbridge said to another boy from Gryffindor.

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the countercurses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under care- fully controlled examination conditions," said Professor Umbridge dismissively.

"Without ever practicing them before?" said Parvati incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough —"

"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" said Harry loudly, his fist in the air again.

Professor Umbridge looked up.

"This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world," she said softly. "So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting out there?"

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?" inquired Professor Umbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

"Hmm, let's think . . ." said Harry in a mock thoughtful voice, "maybe Lord Voldemort?"

"And more!" Leo said, grinning. "Percy, help me out."

Percy counted on his fingers. "The titans, the giants, Medusa, dragon, drakons, demons, monsters, giant lizard-thingies, giant lions, Minotaurs...um, any others?"

Ron gasped; another girl uttered a little scream; Neville slipped sideways off his stool. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Harry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Potter, Jackson, Valdez, and di Angelo."

The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at us, probably because they're wizard brains were in hyper overdrive, trying to decipher what we had meant.

"Now, let me make a few things quite plain."

Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned toward them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk. She decided to ignore our demigods nonsense, instead focusing on Harry's point.

"You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead —"

"He wasn't dead," said Harry angrily, "but yeah, he's returned!"

"Well, he was dead," Nico interjected. "Sort of."

"You-four-have-already-lost-your-House-twenty-points-do-not- make-matters-worse-for-yourself," said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at them. "As I was saying, you have been in- formed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."

"It is NOT a lie!" said Harry. "I saw him, I fought him!"

"Detention, Mr. Potter, Mr. Jackson, Mr. di Angelo, and Mr. Valdez!" said Professor Umbridge triumphantly, although she sort of stumbled over all of our long names. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners.' "

I couldn't help it. I snorted. "Not in danger," I said. "Ha-ha."

Professor Umbridge glared at me, then sat down behind her desk again. Harry, however, stood up. Everyone was staring at him; Seamus looked half- scared, half-fascinated.

"Harry, no!" Hermione whispered in a warning voice, tugging at his sleeve, but Harry jerked his arm out of her reach.

"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry asked, his voice shaking. Sadly, I knew who Cedric was. I'd met him in Elysium once.

There was a collective intake of breath from the class, for none of them, apart from Ron and Hermione, had ever heard Harry talk about what had happened on the night that Cedric had died. They stared avidly from Harry to Professor Umbridge, who had raised her eyes and was staring at him without a trace of a fake smile on her face.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," she said coldly.

"It was murder," said Harry. He was shaking, and Percy and Leo stood up to back him. Hesitantly, I stood too. "Voldemort killed him, and you know it."

Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank. For a moment, I thought she was going to scream at him. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice, "Come here, dears."

Harry kicked his chair aside, strode around us, and up to the teacher's desk. Slowly, us demigods followed.

Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink, and started scribbling, hunched over so that I could not see what she was writing, not that I would be able to read it anyhow. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.

"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him.

He took it from her without saying a word and left the room, not even looking back at Ron and Hermione, and slamming the classroom door shut behind him. Awkwardly, Percy, Leo, and I followed him out into the corridors.

***End of canon text-Umbridge's lessons have MANY quotes and descriptions that cannot be replaced without losing their full meaning.***

Harry led us down the hallway, furious. After a few minutes, he said, "You gave yourselves away."

"Whoopsies," Percy said, not sounding very sorry.

Now that I looked back on it, it was a stupid thing to do. Now, the whole class, plus the teachers, would be hunting us down for answers. That is, unless Dumbledore put an end to it or helped us explain.

***'Nother edited excerpt from the book...dialogue, you know.***

I was distracted from my thoughts when a little man with orange eyes and very loud, bright clothing hovered up to us, juggling ink pots in mid air.

"What is it, Peeves?" Harry asked angrily.

"Why, it's Potty Wee Potter!" cackled Peeves, allowing two of the inkwells to fall to the ground where they smashed and spattered the walls with ink; Harry jumped backward out of the way with a snarl.

"Get out of it, Peeves."

"Oooh, Crackpot's feeling cranky," said Peeves, pursuing Harry along the corridor, leering as he zoomed along above him. "What is it this time, my fine Potty friend? Hearing voices? Seeing visions? Speaking in"—Peeves blew a gigantic raspberry—"tongues?"

"I said, leave me ALONE!" Harry shouted, running down the nearest flight of stairs, but Peeves merely slid down the banister on his back beside him. Looking at each other, we followed.

"Peeves, shut up!" I snarled, figuring the poltergeist would listen, since he was a sort of spirit. No such luck.

"Oh, most think he's barking, the Potty wee lad,

But some are more kindly and think he's just sad, But Peevesy knows better and says that he's mad —"

"SHUT UP!" Harry shouted.

A door to his left flew open and Professor McGonagall emerged from her office looking grim and slightly harassed.

"What on earth are you shouting about, Potter, and the rest of you?" she snapped, as Peeves cackled gleefully and zoomed out of sight. "Why aren't you in class?"

"We've been sent to see you," said Harry stiffly.

"Sent? What do you mean, sent?"

He held out the note from Professor Umbridge. Professor McGonagall took it from him, frowning, slit it open with a tap of her wand, stretched it out, and began to read. Her eyes zoomed from side to side behind their square spectacles as she read what Umbridge had written, and with each line they became narrower.

"Come in here."

We followed her inside her study. The door closed automatically behind us, which I took as a bad sign. When you're a demigod, doors closing automatically behind you is always a bad sign.

"Well?" said Professor McGonagall, rounding on us. "Is this true?"

"Is what true?" Harry asked, rather more aggressively than I thought wise. "Professor?" he added in an attempt to sound more polite.

"Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"You called her a liar?"

"Yes."

"You told her He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?"

"Yes."

Professor McGonagall sat down behind her desk, frowning at us.

Then she said, "Have a biscuit."

"Have — what?" Percy said. "Biscuits?"

"Yes, have a biscuit," she repeated impatiently, indicating a tartan tin of cookies lying on top of one of the piles of papers on her desk. "And sit down."

We sat and took a biscuit, and I watched Professor McGonagall warily as she set down Professor Umbridge's note and looked very seriously at the three of us.

"Potter, Valdez, Jackson. Di Angelo. You need to be careful."

I swallowed my mouthful of biscuit and watched her expectantly. Her tone of voice was not at all what I was used to in the brief time I'd known her; it was not brisk, crisp, and stern; it was low and anxious instead.

"Misbehavior in Dolores Umbridge's class could cost you much more than House points and a detention."

"What do you — ?" Harry began to ask.

"Potter, use your common sense," snapped Professor McGonagall, with an abrupt return to her usual manner. "You know where she comes from, you must know to whom she is reporting."

The bell rang for the end of the lesson. Overhead and all around came the elephantine sounds of hundreds of students on the move. "It says here she's given you detention every evening this week, starting tomorrow," Professor McGonagall said, looking down at Umbridge's note again.

"Every evening this week!" Harry repeated, horrified. "But, Professor, couldn't you — ?"

"No, I couldn't," said Professor McGonagall flatly.

"But —" Leo began.

"She is your teacher and has every right to give you detention. You will go to her room at five o'clock tomorrow for the first one. Just remember: Tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge."

"She's not our teacher," Leo muttered.

"But I was telling the truth!" said Harry. "Voldemort's back, you know he is, Professor Dumbledore knows he is —"

"For heaven's sake, Potter!" said Professor McGonagall, straightening her glasses angrily (she had winced horribly when Harry had used Voldemort's name). "Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It's about keeping your head down and your temper under control!"

She stood up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and Harry stood too. "Have another biscuit," she said irritably, thrusting the tin at him. "No, thanks," said Harry coldly.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped.

Harry took one. I took one too, although I didn't eat it.

"Thanks," Harry said grudgingly.

"Didn't you listen to Dolores Umbridge's speech at the start-of-term feast, Potter?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah . . . she said . . . progress will be prohibited or . . . well, it meant that . . .that the Ministry of Magic is trying to interfere at Hogwarts."

Professor McGonagall eyed us for a moment, then sniffed, walked around her desk, and held open the door for him.

"Well, I'm glad you listen to Hermione Granger at any rate," she said, pointing us out of her office.

***end of excerpt***

Percy, Leo, and I followed Harry out of the common room. Our next challenge? Detention with Dolores.

* * *

**Percy's POV**

Ahh, evenings at Hogwarts are lovely, aren't they? The delicious food in the Great Hall, the quiet and mystery of the sprawling corridors, Leo making gagging sounds next to me as we walked into Professor Umbridge's pink wonderland.

***yet another edited canon except!***

"Good evening, dears."

I jumped and looked around. Even I had not noticed her at first, with my superior demigod observation skills (ADHD-lovely condition!) because she was wearing a luridly flowered set of robes that blended only too well with the tablecloth on the desk behind her.

"Evening," Harry said stiffly.

"Same," I said.

Leo grinned. "Lovely night!"

Nico nodded, a ghost of a smile flickering across his face. "Yes," he said smoothly. "Lovely for traveling."

Umbridge gave us a look that was part concerned for our sanity (and her safety) and part suspicion. "Well, sit down," she said, pointing toward a small table draped in lace beside which she had drawn up four straight-backed chairs. Likewise, four pieces of blank parchment lay on the table, apparently waiting for us-the Scrolls O' Doom.

"Er," said Harry, without moving. "Professor Umbridge? Er — before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a . . . a favor."

Her bulging eyes narrowed, making her look only slightly less toad-like.

"Oh yes?"

"Well I'm . . . I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was — was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it — do it another night . . . instead . . ."

I knew long before he reached the end of his sentence that it was no good. Teachers like Umbridge think they are special-they don't care for the students.

"Oh no," said Umbridge, smiling so widely that she looked as though she had just swallowed a particularly juicy fly. "Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."

I looked at Harry with pitying sympathy. Stuff like this had happened to me countless times.

Umbridge was watching Harry with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking and was waiting to see whether he would start shouting again. With what seemed to me as a massive effort Harry looked away from her, dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair, and sat down next to us.

"There," said Umbridge sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me; all three of you. No, not with your quill, or your...pens," she added, as Harry bent down to open his bag, and I took out Riptide. "You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are."

She handed us four long, thin black quills with an unusually sharp point-or at least, sharper than the other quills I'd seem.

"I want you to write 'I must not tell lies,' " she told him softly. "The same for you others, as well."

"How many times?" Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go."

She moved over to her desk, sat down, and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. I raised the sharp black quill and then realized what was missing. When the wizards used quilts, they also needed ink. Another reason to use pens. Harry, apparently, was thinking the same thing.

"You haven't given me any ink," Harry said.

"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice.

I didn't find that reassuring. I placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must not tell lies.

I almost let out a gasp of pain, then controlled myself. I'd felt a lot worse than this; again, Tartarus. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink-blood. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of my right hand, cut into my skin as though traced there by a scalpel — yet even as I stared at the shining cut, shocked, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.

Harry looked around at Umbridge, next to me. She was watching him, her wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile.

"Yes?"

"Nothing," said Harry quietly.

I couldn't believe it. That was my sword hand! I couldn't start scraping it up. I looked back at Umbridge, and ever so quietly, slipped the quill under the table, tapping Leo with it.

"Dull the point," I whispered to him in Greek. "Melt it, that way, they won't be able to cut us."

Leo grinned, before taking all four quills and dulling them, just enough so they'd still look normal, but wouldn't cut us. Then, he slipped them back, and we began "writing."

Meanwhile, Nico slipped a small flask of something-water? Underworld potion? and began saying an incantation until it was the color of blood. He set it on the table behind a vase of flowers, where Umbridge couldn't see it, and we began actually writing.

Darkness fell outside Umbridge's window. We did not ask when we'd would be allowed to stop; we were doing just fine now. Umbridge was watching us for signs of weakness, so we had to dip our quills whenever she looked down, away, or blinked. To fake our hands, we smeared some red ink on our hands and Nico worked his Underworld magic until our hands looked appropriately raw and ugly. However, they didn't hurt at all, and we would just wash them off later.

"Come here," Umbridge said, after what seemed hours.

We stood up and walked to her desk.

"Hands," she said.

We extended our hands, silently praying the fake scrapes would fool her. She squinted at our hands, before saying: "Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet," she said, smiling. "Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? You may go."

We left her office without a word. The school was quite deserted; it was surely past midnight. "Thanks," Harry said.

***end of canon text***

Nico nodded. "No problem," he said. "Making that blood ink was easy.

Harry gagged. "It was actually blood?" he asked, looking horrified.

"Duh," I said. "He's a son of Hades."

Leo looked serious, for once. "We won't be able to do this for long, though," he said. "Maybe not even tomorrow. She'll notice the pens are dull."

I agreed. "We'll need to think of a better plan. Maybe we can use some diluted nectar afterwards?"

"But nectar won't work on Harry," Nico pointed out.

"But he's a wizard! Blessed by Hecate!" I said.

"He'd still human," Leo said.

"Hey, I'm right here, you know," Harry said. "Also, no matter what we do, Umbridge is going to be here all year."

Which pretty much ended our good mood.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Yes, Yes, I know! I changed quite a bit, but I'm planning on speeding the Horcrux situation up a bit. I also used quite a few canon excerpts, but there was quite a bit of important dialogue, so you know...also, sorry this is late. I've had to work during stolen minutes during things I have to do. The next chapter will be interesting...hope you enjoyed!


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's ****Notes:**

**TADA!**

**I**

**AM**

**BACK! **

**I told you I would be! But why now?**

**Well...I read Shades of X's review. And I felt pretty bad about (basically) abandoning this. Then, I reread the story and realized how much I missed writing it-it really is a lot of fun, after all! Also, it wasn't NEARLY as cringy as I feared. So, yeah.**

**I shall keep writing. I attempted to draw PJ and for once, it ACTUALLY LOOKED RIGHT ASJDJFNDJFDI-**

**But anyways. **

HarryPotter4EverCecilia (sorry if I got your name wrong!) thanks for all...that...feedback...I logged in and I was like HOLY SCHIST SO MANY REVIEWS O_O But thanks; I enjoyed reading them and am happy you like the fanfic. Thank you to anyone else who reviewed as well-you know who you are.

But anyways. Finally, some ACTUAL STUFF is starting to happen. Be prepared for stuff to get fun. :D

P.S. Sorry if any dialogue is different from the book. I'm making variations, as you can see. This won't be "Order of the Phoenix" so much as it will be "Order of the Phoenix+a quest+demigods+some Half Blood Prince stuff. Also, I won't be making a new story when "book 5" ends. I'll just continue here.

**Important info: **I did get rid of (most) of those weird OOC moments between Nico and Leo. I kept some in for comic relief though-but the weird scaring Leo scene at Grimmauld place, I got rid of. No idea what I was thinking when I wrote that but anyways-

**PRESENTING THE LONG-AWAITED CHAPTER 10!**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Percy's ****PoV**

The next day at breakfast, I told Hermione and Ron what had happened. Or, more accurately, Leo did.

Leo was energetically talking, waving his hands around and occasionally threatening to roast the rest of my breakfast. "And _then _she made us write with the quills! And cut our own skin! And _then _Percy came up with a clever idea for once-"

"Excuse me?" I asked, offended.

"-and then Nico and I did most of the work, and we fooled the pink toad! And _then_-" Leo was interrupted by a barn owl landing on his plate. "Whoa!" he said. "Who put this bird here?"

"Um, that's Olivia," I said. Olivia looked at me like _Well duh, _then held out her leg. An envelope labeled _Percy J, Hogwarts, _was attached to her ankle.

Nervously, I took it. Olivia flew off before I could say thank-you. Apparently, she was annoyed at me for some reason. Maybe Annabeth had been telling her stories of whenever I annoyed her. I opened the envelope. The writing was Annabeth's, and it was in Ancient Greek. Translated to English, it read:

_Percy Jackson, you are in SERIOUS trouble._

_Look out._

_-Love, Annabeth_

_P.S. What were you thinking when you got me this owl? There's poop all over the Athena Cabin! I got an earful from her about how she KNEW you were trouble!_

I folded the letter into the pocket of my blue hoodie-I was wearing it over my "uniform." Leo was wearing his tool belt again, and Nico was wearing his black aviator's jacket. We were very careful when it came to the uniforms. I was kind of annoyed, since Annabeth obviously wasn't in trouble, or she would have IMed me.

Hermione looked worried. Not about the letter, but about last night. "Harry, you have to tell Professor Dumbledore about Professor Umbridge!"

Harry shook his head. "No," he said. "I don't want to annoy him. And it would just cause trouble."

"But-"

"I won't tell him, Hermione!" Harry said again. "He already thinks I can't handle anything! He didn't tell me anything at all this summer, until I got attacked by dementors and he _had _to!"

"What's a dementor?" I blurted out, before I could stop myself.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at me like I was nuts. "How do you _not _know?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Also, I told you about it at Headquarters."

"Well, sorry, I wasn't a wizard for five years year," I said. "And sorry, I forgot."

Harry blinked, then answered my question. "Dementors are the guards of a wizard prison, Azkaban."

"Harry fought off, like, _a hundred _of them two years ago," Ron added, his mouth full of food.

I smiled. "So, we have something in common."

"Yeah! Making monsters go _boom!_" Leo added. "So, what classes do we have today?"

Hermione checked her schedule. "We have...Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and Astronomy, at midnight*****."

Leo's jaw dropped. "We get to stay up 'till _midnight_?"

"Yes!" Nico said. "I can shadow-travel away and mess around!"

I looked at him. "Um...mess around?"

"You know what I mean."

I looked at him. "Nico, you are _not _looking for Horcruxes at three in the morning!"

Nico raised an eyebrow at me. "Says you? You get up at like, four AM to rescue cow serpents!"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't bring Bessie into this!"

Ron blinked, then said around his food: "Who's Bessie?"

Nico waved his hand. "Long story," he said. "Cow. End of the world. Nothing of consequence."

"_Nothing of-?" _Harry sputtered.

"Yeah," I said. "Just an old friend."

Harry was looking at me like I'd just grown nose hair, or a fish tail or something. Being a son of Poseidon, the god of the seas, you never know.

Luckily, I was saved by the bell ringing, and we headed off to Transfiguration.

I knew the moment that we walked in that Professor McGonagall was one of _those _teachers. The ones that constantly glared at me, called me out, and gave me detentions. I would probably be a pile of crushed schist by the end of this class. Or seaweed. Seaweed would work too.

Professor McGonagall looked around at us; and for once, the class was absolutely silent. "Today, will be learning about vanishing spells, which will be an essential part of your O.W.L. exams…." The Professor launched into an extensive speech about our O.W.L.S.

A while later, Professor McGonagall handed us each a snail and told us to practice our vanishing spells. Leo and Nico's snails became part-way transparent, probably because of their modified wands. Mine, on the other hand, liquified and became a puddle of snail slime on my desk.

Professor McGonagall stalked over, cat-like.**** **"What is this, Mr. Jackson?" she asked, her voice crisp and stern.

"Uh...my snail turned into a puddle. Does that count as vanishing? I mean, liquid isn't as solid as...um, a solid snail."

Professor McGonagall sniffed, then said wryly: "I suppose I can give you a few points for _liquefying _your snail."

Professor McGonagall moved on, and I looked at Hermione. Her snail was almost invisible; Ron's and Harry's didn't look any different. "I think mine's a shade paler," Ron said hopefully, prodding his snail with his wand.

* * *

**Leo's PoV **

Charm class was fun. For one thing, the teacher was like me: a midget among giants. Professor Flitwick was short, with a wispy white beard [NO, he is not a choir director with short brown hair, like in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie!] and a pile of books under him so he could see the class.

And I thought I was short!

In charms, we would be learning about...well, Summoning Charms. I raised my hand, after Professor Flitwick had finished explaining the basics.

"So...you can summon _any _object? Even if someone is holding it?"

"Well wouldn't _you _like to know!" Nico whispered to me, trying not to laugh.

"Yes," Professor Flitwick squeaked. Maybe he could be Professor Pipsqueak. Or Professor Pipsqik. "Any object can be summoned, unless it has special enchantments on it."

I grinned and eyed Percy. He smiled, and winked.

Travis and Connor Stoll needed to know about this.

However, once practice actually started, everyone except Hermione found things… difficult. Even our hacked/upgraded wands didn't want to work. Percy, with his actual wand, kept squirting water at the object he was trying to summon. "_Accio!_" he said, pointing his wand. _Squirt! _Percy sighed and said, "Guys, why is it always me?"

* * *

**Percy's POV**

Lunch had arrived.

Finally.

Lunch had always been my semi-safe spot-you kicked back, ate food, and talked. Or you skipped lunch in favor of fighting monsters, going on quests, and almost dying. Depends on the day!

I was just digging into my lunch (grilled chicken and salad-almost like the stuff they fed us back at camp!) when the doors to the Great Hall banged open. And in walked a group of people.

Wizard's robes. And yet...they were different.

It was Annabeth. And Piper, and Jason, and Hazel. Also Frank. And Calypso.

Gods of Olympus, help me.

I stood up awkwardly and walked over, in the sound of silence. "Uh...hey guys!" I lowered my voice to a stage whisper. "You could have warned me before you busted into the Great Hall."

Annabeth's voice was completely calm as she said, "Percy Jackson, you are the biggest Seaweed Brain I have ever met. First, you _almost die _all the time. Then, you disappear for six months. Now, you head off to some Wizarding World, which _an evil wizard _is planning to invade. And for the first _two days _of going to Hogwarts, you never told me what was going on."

"Hey!" I protested. "You were fine when-"

Annabeth punched me in the arm. Hard. "Come on!" I said. "You know I hate it when you do that!"

Annabeth smiled. "Then don't annoy me, Seaweed Brain. Come on. We need to tell Professor Dumbledore that we've arrived."

I followed her as our group (Leo and Nico had blended into the demigod crowd) headed to the teachers' table. Most of the people in the hall were either glaring at us, gawking at us, or staring into space, too stunned to process our awesomeness. "Uh...I think Professor Dumbledore knows," I said.

"Yes, he does," Annabeth said. "I told him beforehand."

Frank mumbled, "You didn't tell us you would make us bust into the Great Hall."

Annabeth ignored him. I wondered how she had gotten everyone to help with the dramatic entrance, what with Piper's charmspeak and Jason always following the rules. I was pretty sure busting into the Great Hall was against the rules.

When we'd finally reached the teacher table (that actually sounds pretty good, eh?) Dumbledore smiled at us. "You would want to come with me," he said.

Professor Dumbledore led us into a SECRET ROOM. Okay, fine, it was just a Trophy Room behind the teacher table, but whatever.

After our large group tromped inside, Dumbledore turned, smiling in a sad sort of way. "You didn't tell me you would be making such an...ah, _dramatic _entrance," Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid questions will be asked. Tonight, at the latest, you'll have to explain-and tell the truth."

My jaw dropped. "No! That would ruin the whole thing! Unbridge would _kill _us if she knew! She'd say something about how only normal wizards are allowed, according to the 'Ministry approved blah blah blah!'"

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "Who is Umbridge?" she asked.

Dumbledore responded. "A Professor at the school," he said.

"One with murderous torture quills," I added. "That she uses on 'naughty children' like Harry, Nico, Leo, and me."

Dumbledore's blue eyes sparked to life. "I wasn't informed of this," he said.

Leo shrugged. "Harry wanted to keep it a secret," he said.

Jason didn't say anything. "..."

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Nico elbowed Leo. Leo ignored him. "Because he said that you thought he couldn't handle anything, so-"

Nico summoned a bony mouse and dropped it into Leo's shirt.

I decided to intervene. "Um, yeah. Annabeth, I really should have updated. Sorry."

She ignored me, too busy thinking to notice. "We need to make a plan to get rid of Umbridge," she said. "Couldn't you fire her?" she asked Dumbledore.

Dumbledore shook his head. "She was appointed by the Ministry," he said. "I cannot afford to give them any more reasons to be suspicious."

Piper threw her hands up. "Come on, guys! I can just charmspeak her or something."

Jason frowned. "I don't think that would work for long," he said.

Hazel nodded. "Maybe Arion can carry her off instead," she said.

"Wizards do this _thing _called apparating," Nico said. "It's like shadow-travel, but worse."

Leo sighed. "Maybe we can tell the Ministry that she enjoys torturing students."

Dumbledore nodded. "I'll inform Cornelius," he said. "In the meantime, try not to upset her, _especially _if she's still here after you explain that you're demigods."

We all nodded. Dumbledore added, "I'll transport you to your next class, Care of Magical Creatures. Nico, take half, and I'll take the other."

A few minutes later, we were standing by Harry's friend's house. Nico was leaning against a tree, looking sleepy after transporting four people. Dumbledore disappeared, presumably to handle the problem in the Great Hall.

There was a table full of moving sticks, as well as an old lady with short gray hair. She narrowed her eyes at us. "You don't look familiar," she said.

"We're new here," Annabeth said. Always the one who saved our hides. "We're transfers from the American wizarding school."

The witch nodded. "I'm Professor Grubbly Plank," she said. "Your normal Care of Magical Creatures teacher is Professor Rubeus Hagrid."

We nodded and tried to blend into the background, and soon, our Gryffindor friends arrived. Unfortunately, they were accompanied by Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin bunch.

"What's up with your odd friends, Potter?" Malfoy said. He reminded me a bit of Octavian-never a good thing.

"None of your business, Malfoy," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Really? My father would be _very _interested to hear about this!"

"_Your father _would run for his life if he met mine," Nico said, smirking.

"Or mine," I said.

"Or mine," Jason added.

"Or Frank's," I added. "I met him a few times. It wasn't fun."

Frank sort of scowled, but before he could say anything, Professor Grubbly Plant started the lesson. She indicated the heap of twigs in front of her. "Does anyone know what these are?"

***slightly edited canon text***

Hermione's hand shot into the air. Behind her back, Malfoy did a buck-toothed imitation of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question. His idiot friend gave a shriek of laughter that turned almost at once into a scream, as the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixieish creatures made of wood, each with knobbly brown arms and legs, two twiglike fingers at the end of each hand, and a funny, flat, barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.

"Oooooh!" said some of the girls. Seriously, even the Aphrodite girls aren't THIS silly.

"Kindly keep your voices down, girls!" said Professor Grubbly Plank sharply, scattering a handful of what looked like brown rice among the stick-creatures, who immediately fell upon the food. "So — anyone know the names of these creatures? Miss Granger?"

"Bowtruckles," said Hermione. "They're tree-guardians, usually live in wand-trees."

"Five points for Gryffindor," said Professor Grubbly-Plank. "Yes, these are bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"

"Wood lice," said Hermione promptly, which explained why what Harry had taken for grains of brown rice were moving. "But fairy eggs if they can get them."

"Good girl, take another five points. So whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which a bowtruckle lodges, it is wise to have a gift of wood lice ready to distract or placate it. They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will gouge out human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs. So if you'd like to gather closer, take a few wood lice and a bowtruckle — I have enough here for one between three — you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body parts labeled by the end of the lesson."

The class surged forward around the trestle table. Harry deliberately circled around the back so that he ended up right next to Professor Grubbly-Plank. We followed, blowing his cover.

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry asked her, while everyone else was choosing bowtruckles.

"Never you mind," said Professor Grubbly-Plank. I hate it when people do that-not telling us what's going on. Have I mentioned that before? Oh yeah, I have. We went back to collect our bowtruckles or whatever they're called.

Smirking all over his pointed face, Draco Malfoy leaned across us and seized the largest bowtruckle.

"Maybe," said Malfoy in an undertone, so that only Harry and us demigods could hear him, "the stupid great oaf's got himself badly injured."

"Maybe you will if you don't shut up," said Harry out of the side of his mouth.

***end of canon text* **

"And then you'll have to deal with us," Annabeth snapped.

Leo grinned. "By the time Fe-_my other friends_ meet you, you might just get to meet Nico's dad."

"Leo!" Nico glared at him. "Stop giving out death threats!"

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. Before he could come up with a response, Annabeth glared at him and said: "Beat it."

Wisely, Malfoy beat it. We went back to examining our bowtruckles, and talking about how annoying Malfoy was. Of course...we were just trying to avoid the _real _problem: what would happen tonight.

* * *

**Piper's PoV**

Hogwarts was certainly weird. Throughout the day, everyone kept staring at the demigods. Calypso fit right in-she got a genuine wand when Dumbledore handed them out. Piper got a generic stick, complete with safeguards-it had a unicorn tail core, as did Hazel's. Jason's had an eagle feather for its core; Frank had a wand with a dragon heartstring core. Of course. He literally could turn into a dragon.

Annabeth's wand was cool; it was made of olive wood (duh) and had an owl feather core (duh, again.)

Anyways, when dinner finally arrived, Piper spent the whole time talking nervously with the others. She had to use charmspeak to keep everyone calm. Even so, the whole school was staring, whispering behind their hands. Umbridge glared at the demigods; for some reason, she kept scribbling notes on pink parchment. Suspicious.

Jason kept surveying the hall next to Piper. "I think that we should try to be honest, but brief," he said. "I don't trust the Umbridge person."

Annabeth nodded. "She definitely will be trouble."

"Yeah," Percy said. "Kept using her quills on us. We had to dull the point."

"And I had to make blood ink," Nico said. "Which really sucked."

"But that will only work for the first time, I think," Percy added.

"Hmm," Piper said. "Do you guys think it's okay if I use some charmspeak while I talk?"

Annabeth looked worried. "I think you'll have to…."

Piper nodded, and began thinking of what she would say. _Hello everyone; we are demigods, and we come in peace _sounded very cheesy. And weird. Piper didn't want everyone to think that they were weird...or at least, any weirder than they actually were.

Piper's salad tasted like sawdust. So did her ice cream. When dessert was almost finished, Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat. "I assume that many of you are wondering about our new students."

Uh-oh. As soon as Dumbledore said those words, the entire hall went silent. Every single pair of eyes locked onto the demigods. Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "Come up here and introduce yourselves."

Hermione nodded encouragingly at us. "You'll be fine," she whispered, before elbowing Ron to do the same.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "Don't mess up."

Piper swallowed; her mouth tasted like sawdust. Silently, the nine demigods walked up onto the dais and stood next to Dumbledore's podium-thingy.

Dumbledore nodded encouragingly. Piper's eight friends looked at her.

"Um..." she started awkwardly. "Hi. You've probably noticed we're a bit..."

Piper struggled to find a word. _What is _wrong _with me?! _She shook her head. She'd spoken to entire _legions _before! Surely she could introduce herself and her friends. Starting again, Piper said: "You've noticed that we're a bit different, and you're probably wondering why."

Jason nodded at her and offered a small smile. _I have my friends here if anything goes wrong, right? _More confident now, Piper continued, "We aren't exactly wizards."

The Great Hall erupted into chaos. Putting some charmspeak into her voice, Piper said: "Quiet down and _listen!_ Don't you want to hear more?" The Great Hall quieted down. Piper nodded at Annabeth; she'd be better at explaining the whole Greek/Roman thing.

Annabeth stepped up next to Piper. Her stormy gray eyes scanned the hall. "Have any of you heard about the Greek and Roman myths?" she asked.

Whispers broke out around the hall. Someone shouted, "You mean the weird ones with the gods and the goat people?"

Leo snickered. "Goat people," he whispered. "Coach Hedge would be honored." Calypso elbowed him.

Annabeth continued. "The Greek gods are still around." _LE GASP. _"And sometimes, they have kids with mortals..."

The Great Hall went nuts. Piper decided to help Annabeth out. "_And that's where we come into the picture,_" she said loudly. The Great Hall went from volume 100 to volume 20. "We're demigods. Half human, half god. Also known as half-bloods."

Someone from Hufflepuff shouted, "Then why are you here? To help You-Know-Who's evil grandson? What's so special about you?"

Annabeth looked angry. She glared at Percy, and they had a silent conversation like:

Annabeth: _Has is been like this the whole time? _

Percy: _Yeah, pretty much._

Annabeth: _Why didn't you tell me?_

Percy: _I thought you'd start beating wizards up and causing trouble on my behalf._

Annabeth: _YOU'RE DARN RIGHT, SEAWEED BRAIN! And if you thought-_

Percy saved himself by turning his attention away from Annabeth and addressing the crowd. "What's special about me?" He said, his sea-green eyes glittering. _Oh no, _Piper thought. _Here it come_s_…._

Percy smiled, and lifted his hands. Any water left in the goblets on the tables floated into the air; Percy made the water spell out the words _Demigods rule! _before it splashed down again: soaking everyone in the Great Hall.

Percy looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Oops," he said, before waving his hand and making all the water evaporate. "Sorry about that."

Everyone stared. Jason smirked; before saying: "But that's not _all _we can do." Piper smiled; Jason's powers were pretty awesome. Jason took out his gold coin and flipped it so the imperial gold metal extended into a golden javelin. Jason stepped forward and shouted, "Twelfth Legion Fulminata!" Thunder boomed, and lightning raced down to deflect off the javeline's point.

Percy smiled. "Jason! You always make _my _powers look like a joke."

Jason gave Percy a high-five. "Yup. That's why I'm here."

Piper nudged Hazel. "Do the metal thing," she whispered.

"What if I curse the plates?" Hazel whispered back.

"Pfft. They're fricking _magic. _How can you curse them?" Leo asked.

Hazel sighed. "Fine." She lifted her hands and made the plates float up a few inches, before setting them back down on the tables. Complete pandemonium occurred.

Half of the girls jumped backwards. "AHH! The plates are FLOATING!"

Nico snorted. "It's a _magic _school," he muttered. "Things float in magic schools."

* * *

**Nico's POV**

Dumbledore smiled. "Nico," he said. "You'll have to use your powers. The students need to know that they don't count as dark magic."

Nico scowled. He didn't particularly _want _to be the #2 Most Hated Student, second to Percy, but he stepped into Frank's shadow and teleported to the middle of the Great Hall.

Someone screamed. Someone else fell off their bench. Nico thought that it was mildly amusing, but he didn't smile. Scanning the ground for any more playthings, he summoned a couple skeletons. More people screamed. The teachers looked quite alarmed, which Nico found downright hilarious-if the _teachers _were scared of them, they could probably get away with _anything. _Even playing with Leo's stick-figures during all their classes.

Speaking of Leo: "NICO! MAKE THEM DO A DANCE! I HAVE THE MUSIC READY!" Leo held up a makeshift radio.

Nico gave Leo his best annoyed face. "Why should I?" He shouted back.

"_Do it!_" Piper shouted.

So it was a _group _prank. Nico didn't want to, but he snapped his fingers and made the skeletons start doing a weird dance as Leo turned on _Spooky Scary Skeletons. _

The moment the charmspeak wore off, Nico snapped his fingers again and made the skeletons disintegrate. "_Piper! Leo! _Why do you do this to me?!" Nico shouted. He shadow-traveled back to the others. "I swear-"

Percy interrupted. "Guys, we have a small problem."

Since Nico had summoned the skeletons, and after everyone stopped _screaming, _the entire Great Hall had been dead silent. _No pun intended, _Nico thought.

"LEO," he said. "You are SO ANNOYING."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Ah...Leo. Piper. You _might _have overdone it."

"_Overdone it?_" Nico sputtered. "He-they-urgh!" Nico was pretty sure that all the shadows in the room had just gotten darker and larger, but he really didn't care. "You will _so _pay for this."

"_Anyways,_" Frank said loudly. "Other than that, I can do...THIS!" Frank turned into an iguana.

Calypso smiled. "Very impressive."

"Yeah, Sunshine!" Leo added. "That's the best of them all! If only we had the Chinese Handcuffs-"

Frank turned back to a human. "Do. _Not. _Mention the Chinese Handcuffs," he said.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "So. We're demigods, and _that _is what is special about us. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Percy is a son of Poseidon, the god of the sea and horses."

"My name's Jason Grace; I'm a son of Jupiter," Jason added. "Roman god of the skies. His Greek counterpart is Zeus."

"Daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of love," Piper said. "I'm...um, Piper McLean." The celebrity-crazy girls went nuts.

"Son of Mars," Frank said. "Name's Frank Zhang."

"I'm Calypso-I'm not technically a demigod, but my father is Atlas the Titan."

"Leo Valdez! Son of Hephaestus! AND I AM ON FI-YAH!" Leo set himself on fire.

"Leo," Calypso chided. Leo put himself out.

"Nico di Angelo. And I'm a son of Hades. God of the Underworld," Nico said darkly. Everyone would hate him. Of course they would.

The Great Hall was _still _silent. Dumbledore saved them. "Yes. They are demigods, and their powers are a little bit different than ours. I ask that you would please treat them with as much respect-"

"_Respect?_" Umbridge had stood. Nico glared at her. She glared right back, before turning her gaze on Dumbledore. "You bring these-these _half-bloods _into your school, and say to treat them with _respect? _The Ministry _will _hear about this-"

"Dolores," Dumbledore said firmly. "It is my school. I am allowed to choose who I accept into its gates."

Umbridge glared at Dumbledore before smiling sweetly. "Not for long," she said, her voice like steel. "Soon they will be properly..._dealt with._"

Dumbledore's blue eyes flamed. Turning to us and the students, he said: "You are dismissed to your common rooms. The professors must...discuss things."

Nico exchanged nervous glances with the others. Whatever Umbridge meant by _dealt with, _he knew that he probably wouldn't like it. Whoever these wizards were...they were just as dangerous as any monster Nico had ever faced. But they were dangerous in a different way: unlike monsters, they had magic-_wizarding _magic. Something none of the demigods would ever be able to compete with, or at least, not using wizarding rules.

Except Percy...who, once again, was trapped in a situation he may not be able to escape from alive.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well, I hope you enjoyed that! I am improvising on the schedule-I don't think OotP specified, and if it did...**I'm too lazy to check. **But I do know Transfiguration and Charms were on the same day. And Care of Magical Creatures.

NVM. I checked, and I was right, but I added and mixed up a few things anyways. OwO

*****At least...I THINK Percy disappeared for six months. Sorry if I got that wrong.

******Yup. _Cat-like_, since she turns into a cat.

Sorry if I got the details wrong, like the Trophy Room (it's supposed to be the room where the champions went after being chosen) the events and dialogue, personalities, etc. Remember, this isn't supposed to be an exact replica of the Order of the Phoenix, plus demigods. It is supposed to be an alternate universe-different characters and events sometimes, different circumstances (demigods, anyone?)

As for whoever said they needed someone with charmspeak: Wish granted.

**Also: I may have said that Hagrid wouldn't be missing. I changed my mind. He is. Pretend that they noticed this when they should have. The HoO characters just sort of shrugged; while the HP characters freaked out like in book.**

Anyways, I'll update sometime within the next 2 weeks...I hope! As I wrote above...it's harder than it looks to write a story.

**NOTE: I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING WHEN I ADDED THE SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS THING. JUST DEAL WITH IT, ALRIGHT? I'LL TRY TO UPDATE SOON, LOL.**


	11. Author's notes-for a LITTLE WHILE

**Hi. Bet ya'll disappointed to see THIS again. But I won't be leaving this time. Basically, I'm at the point in this story where you REALLY have to remember details-so I need to reread Order of the Phoenix again. But I'll be starting with Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire to refresh my memory.**

**While I read those 3 (don't worry, I've read Deathly Hallows in 3 days and Percy Jackson #1 in one day; I read fast) I WILL be continuing "Rising from Shadowed Ashes" my other fanfic that starts during Prisoner of Azkaban (the real reason I am rereading PoA and GoF.) It is still a bit funny and...well...cheesy, but I'll be taking it a bit more seriously-this story is serious and has quite a few serious scenes I plan on adding, but I'll be more formal in the other one.**

**As in: no random Spooky Scary Skeleton things. No cheesy Coach Hedge/Leo moments. Or at least, very few.**

**Basically, Nico doesn't realize he's accepted-he is NOT betrayed or hated; he just wants to leave still. And he stumbles upon Hogwarts and decides to attend (read: the Ministry forces him to attend for a year so they can keep an eye on the strange "Ghost King.")**

**So, feel free to go check that out. And while you're at it, here's a list of other fanfics that are good and/or funny: **

s/10838364/1/Of-Magic-and-Mythology

s/12997891/1/Chills-of-the-Living

s/13157685/1/Best-Friends

s/10146191/1/Dear-Fanfiction

**This one is written by a friend: ** s/13448020/2/Shadows

**So is this one, which focuses on 2 OC's: ** s/11438085/1/Daughters-of-Darkness

**And for these links to work, type FanFiction's URL ****into search, with a / at the end, before pasting them in (unless that part is already there.)**


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